Part of Me
by TakatoRikku
Summary: Super XOver! Follow Dante Leone as he unveils a corporate plot to conquer the world, and destroy all of mankind as we know it. As an unwilling experiment, Dante will discover that his newfound curse will be a gift as he finds a part of himself...
1. Prologue

An original story of massive porportions! You've never seen anything like this before, unless you're a massively huge Otaku who does nothing but sit at home and watch anime! I present to you, my completely original story:

Disclaimer: I pretty much own ANYTHING except for references to existing movies, video games or books. The characters are mine, as are any fictional companies, names, etc.

* * *

**Part of Me**

_Prologue_

The stable economy of the United States of America was made so because of a corporation. This corporation had - within the recent decade - shot up in the ranks of the world by producing some of the most potent healing medicines in the world. Diseases such as cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, diabetes and even leprosy had been miraculously cured by this corporation. Its financial power was only equalled by its political and medicinal power.

The corporation, known as Gaia Medicinal, held offices in 78 different countries, and supplied medicines and other healing products to all 152 counties in the world. 152 countries, you ask? In the year 2013, Gaia M., as they were liked to be called, bought and cultivated the southern island Isla Sorna, and no, it didn't house dinosaurs, only research facilities and homes for its employees, as well as any wealthy immigrant that wanted a taste of utopia.

It seemed as if they could do no wrong.

With heavy financial backing, Gaia M. brought the United States of America out of its many war debts. They helped save many soldiers' lives during Iraq, Iran and the now-finished war between the United Kingdom and Russia. Their influence with the current president Alfred Banner was immense, and one could say that they had him in their pockets.

Occasionally, there would be news of strange happenings that occured near or at Gaia research facilities. Civilians who had homes nearby would sometimes report strange noises coming from behind the concrete walls that ran around the large buildings. Reports of howling animals, minor explosions and perhaps the strangest of all, screams from humans would be reported to the local police stations.

At first, the police waved them off, recieving letters from Gaia M. that the strange noises that had been heard were merely happenstance noises caused by machinery or their experiments. Gaia M. vehemently denied any testing on live test subjects, something they prided themselves on. And so, the matter was ignored for a few more years.

Oh, how we should have seen it coming.

Soon, similar reports of the strange noises began to pop up around the _globe_, and since each one was so consistant with the other, there was a forced facility inspection in the United States, with President Banner protesting against it. Though they found nothing out of the ordinary, the inspection teams noticed the nervous, even scared looks on Gaia M.'s employees' faces. That should have been their first sign that something was wrong.

Soon, reports of missing people began to spring up. Slowly, but surely, the United States was losing people at a rate of 15 per day.

In each state.

It started off with homeless people being picked up off of the street. Civilians had noticed that the hobos that usually milled around their areas had mysteriously dissapeared, and homeless shelters confirmed it. An investigation was held, but nothing showed up.

Then, normal people started dissapearing. Men, women, children, even the elderly began to be lost and soon it came to such a point that national curfews were instated, prohibiting _anyone_ from leaving their house after dusk. It worked for a while, but then the dissapearances began again.

It wasn't until a highly publicised kidnapping that the United States Army became involved.

And this is where his story began.

-----

Dante Leone was your typical college student.

Oh, no wait, he wasn't. He was underweight, not particularly muscular, wore thick rimmed glasses and pretty much got into college based on pure luck, or bribary. Yes, it had to be bribary. The young man was a complete mockery to the word 'education'. He joined no fraternities, no sports teams or extracurricular activities. He showed no interest in his studies (criminal forensics) and certainly didn't hold any of his professors in his heart, or he, they.

He enjoyed video games. He currently owned a Playstation 3, soon to be replaced by a Playstation 4-Omega that was going to be replaced soon. He was an avid Final Fantasy fan, having even bought a $750 cellphone just so he could play Final Fantasy XIII Agito. He had an interest in powerful gaming computers, souped up cars and anything else that would be classified as 'nerdy'.

For lo and behold: he was a nerd.

He had few friends, more like aquaintences. And even still, he didn't like them. They clung to him like leeches, trying to bask in his company for his father's fame. His father was a big shot owner of the Gaia M. facility in Miami. Edwardo Leone was a _very_ powerful man politically-wise. He practically owned the mayor.

You'd think Dante would have all the popularity because of this.

Well, he didn't. He was a nerd, remember.

Females sniffed disdainfully at him. Lacking muscle, he weighed in at a measly 140lbs, and was fairly thin. The only muscles he could have been proud of were the thin, wiry ones he gained in cross training. Other than that, he could be creamed flat by any of the jerkoff jocks in school. He had short, mousy brown hair that wouldn't look good no matter _what_ he did to it. He was average-looking as well, not ugly, not handsome but certainly nothing special.

Perhaps the only redeeming quality about him were his eyes.

They were greener than that damn green light your computer monitor is blinking at you at the moment. You know which green I'm talking about, if you don't then sorry, your computer monitor is wierd.

His eyes were passed down to him from his recently deceased mother, Maria Leone, who had died of a rare sickness that his father's _wonderful_ company couldn't cure. It was odd, she had been the picture of health not two months ago, and suddenly she had upped and died after taking a tour at her husband's facility.

Anyways, shoving the fact that Dante is a pathetically stringy loser, we shall now get on with it and see what he's up to now.

-----

Dante looked around lazily. He was currently at the mall, sitting at the food court while drinking from his soda cup casually. He had just returned from the Electronics Boutique after putting down the required $1300 deposit to pre-order a PS4O. His father was rich enough - and stupid enough, mind you - to toss Dante his own trust account, with nearly unlimited fund to do whatever the hell he wanted. Literally, his father was _that_ rich.

Craning his neck, he glanced at the holographic projection that loomed over the food court, projecting television commercials as if they were right next to you. It was currently showing an advertisement for some new elixer that Gaia M. had developed.

_"The Archos serum will provide scuba divers an unprecidented amount of hydrogen-oxygen diffusion, allowing them to not only discard their heavy scuba gear, but breathe underwater!"_ a bubbly female voice chattered. The projection showed some smarmy idiot grinning widely as he swam around in the Pacific, swallowing water and then breathing it back out without drowning. _"The diffusion method allows divers to intake water into their lungs, and the serum seperates the oxygen molecules from the hydrogen molecules, naturally expelling the hydrogen as the diver breathes outward, but using the oxygen for the body. Another revolutionary product from Gaia Medicinal!"_

Dante snorted. Idiot surfers and divers alike would be swarming to the new, expensive product. People nowadays had far too much money to throw away. Gaia M. had also developed things such as flame-resistant sprays for firemen, bullet-proof _cream_ for cops, and even some sort of serum that could allow people to regenerate body parts! His father had created that last one, the high-riding moron.

Yes, Dante didn't care much for his father. The man had been riding you youth's back ever since he was a kid, telling Dante that he had better grow up to be a scientist like him, so he could join his father at the ranks of Gaia. The man never appreciated his wife either, and she seemed more like a child-bearer to the Italian than anything else.

In fact, the same greedy looks his father shot Dante nowadays were the same ones he gave his mother before she died...

Dante shook his head. _Best not to think like that!_ he chided himself. _I'm being way too paranoid. Paranoid movie-style._

He glanced at his Omega watch. It was nearing 8:00 and he should get home. Glancing around as he tossed his cup into the bin, he saw a group of football jocks with their girlfriends approach him. _Oh great._

"Check it out Phil, it's fanboy Leone!" the fattest one, Lance Carter laughed. He was the linebacker, since his giant rolls of fat weren't much use anywhere else on the team. He was stupid as he was fat, which was saying something since the fool weighed over 300lbs.

"I see de foo," Phil Carpenter laughed. He was a tall, menacing black quarterback that had rippling muscles Dante knew all too well. After all, they were used to kick his ass several times too many.

Phil's posse (including his fellow jocks, Jason Veras, Ryan Whitewood, Whitney Reddings and Carl Johnson along with their respective bimbo girlfriends) laughed uproariously at some unknown joke.

Dante raised an eyebrow. Oh well, it's not as if jocks were smart. And he hardly had to explain the blonde slut that hung off of Phil's arm. Tanya Erricson, the world's biggest dumpsterslut with equally gigantic funbags (also known as breasts to the less cynical) could only be described as a perfect match for the QB. Dante was damn sure they shared and created several STDs.

"Charming as always Phillip, your wit is undyingly refreshing," Dante commented, with a disarming smile. "And Lance! Why, I haven't seen you in ages, it seems like only yesterday that you took the Obesity Potion, and yet you look like you need it again?"

The Obesity Potion was another concoction from Gaia M., it regulated a fat-ass's weight so they wouldn't die of being such fat fuckups like most overweight Americans were.

Dante's quirky response drew the ire of the male group.

"At least our boys got into college with skills, unlike _you_," Tanya simpered, preening Phil's arm. "You probably bribed your way in, that's the only way _you_ could've gotten this far!"

Dante wasn't fazed. "But of course my dear Tanya, how else can I flaunt my financial status if I'm not around you broke-ass peasants all the time?" he asked innocently.

Phil threw his STD container off his arm. "You skinny little shit, I'll beat yo olive ass down!" he yelled, drawing the attention of passerbys.

Dante waved his hand carelessly. "Oh please Phillip, that may have worked in high school, but if you touch me again I'll have my father fire _your_ father and it's off to the cotton farms with you!"

Low blow. Ouch. Dante wasn't afraid to do it. Phil was turning red in the face, quite an accomplishment for an African-American.

"You got balls only cuz yo dad is the bigshot of this city!" Phil snarled. "Any other guy, I'd have beat you down already!"

"Yeah, we'd kill you!" Lance added helpfully.

Dante rolled his eyes. "Oh please Lance, you'd think with all that fat on your body, your brain would be a recipient of some," he drawled, leaning against the bin. "Sadly, it appears not."

This time, someone laughed. It was Sara Conner, one of the girls in Tanya's 'clique'. She was another stereotypical gorgeous 20 year old, minus the dumpsterslut prefixture. She was willowly thin, like a waif almost but it added to her petite beauty. She had a pale heart-shaped face that was framed with silky raven hair that fell to her hips. Even more captivating than her straight, wavy hair were her ruby lips or her ocean blue eyes. She was quite stunning in a sort of girl-next-door kind of way, but her soft-spoken personality was the real winner with people.

Anyways, before he creamed himself thinking of those succulent tiny breasts (Sara was known as a 'late bloomer') Dante forced himself back to what was currently happening.

Wait.

Rewind.

Sara Conner laughing at one of _his_ jokes?

Hit _Menu_ and play the DVD from the beginning. Sara Conner... _aknowledged_ him? As... As a living being, and not that human-shaped lump at the back of class?

Apparently, her friends were staring at her in confusion as well. She flushed under the attention.

"What?" she asked nervously. Her voice was very soft, and breathy. "I thought it was funny..."

"Girl, no one likes this cumstain!" Phil snapped, turning back to Dante. "Listen you stupid shit -"

Whatever Phil was going to say next was interrupted as the glass ceiling over the food court shattered, raining glass on everyone under it. Screams were heard as paracords dropped down, with black figures sliding down them.

Dante took cover near his garbage bin and watched as heavily armed soldiers with assault rifles (he recognized the SCAR L carbines from Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2) equipped with grenade launchers. These soldiers were decked out in urban black gear, complete with enclosed tactical helmets with fiber-optic optical lenses, which allowed the soldiers to see in the dark and in infrared.

About 16 hand landed, and were forming up 4 squads, fanning out and searching the area for something. Phil's posse was still standing near them, too dumbfounded to do a thing. Then, the unthinkable happened.

Jason, Sara's sort-of-but-not-really-well-maybe boyfriend stepped forward and yelled, "What the fuck is going on here?"

His answer was a three round burst to his forehead, dropping him to the ground in a spray of blood. The screams began.

Dante saw Sara's horror-stricken look as she was bathed in the blood of her sort-of... boyfriend. The soldier who had executed Jason raised his rifle at her. Dante's thought processes stopped as he saw this happen.

Almost, as if on its own accord his body was moving, everything was in slow motion like in those kick-ass action movies or games. Dante could see the soldier's finger start to squeeze the trigger on his carbine, and he knew it was too late, he was too far away...

And suddenly, he was there! Dante's surprise was shorter than the soldier's, and he quickly heaved the garbage bin he unknowingly picked up at the soldier's face, crushing the optical lenses on his helmet, rendering him blind until he took it off. Not finished, Dante pounded the heavy steel can into the soldier's back, dropping him to the floor. A burning pain filled his lungs and he dropped to the ground in agony.

Sara Conner screamed, sitting on the ground in shock as Dante gurgled painfully, the bullet wounds in his back spewing out blood as his lungs filled with his life liquid...

"Run!" Dante managed to scream, the blood in his throat making his voice sound sickly raspy. "G-go Sara!"

Her eyes, those beautiful crystal eyes never left his electric green ones as she scrambled to her feet, before turning around and running away. It would be the last time Dante would see her for many months...

As he began to lose consciousness, the soldiers surrended him, staring at his crumpled body.

_"This is the one alright,"_ one of them said, his voice sounding robotic through the helmet's speaker.

_"Did you see him move?"_ another asked, gripping his SCAR tightly. _"Took down Jenkins in the blink of an eye!"_

A new figure came into Dante's view, but this one was clad in a white bio-suit, his fading eyes could make that out at least.

_"He'll do nicely for our new... project,"_ it spoke.

The voice sounded... familiar to Dante... Too... famil...


	2. Birth of a curse

_Birth of a curse_

It had been nearly 2 years since Dante's highly publicized kidnapping. Bystanders had noticed the Gaia corporate symbol on the bio-suit's back, a simple blue and green planet and had flocked to the police, and FBI.

_"We now have uncovered a shocking, horrible truth behind the mega corporation behind Gaia Medicinal!"_ a woman's voice said shrilly on the television. _"Gaia M., known worldwide for bettering the lives of millions of people, have been secretly and illegally developing biological weapons, diseases and monsters! The multi-trillion company has been, for years, creating such things that would make God himself weep and now we go to Captain Chris Topher for more detail!"_

The sharply dressed woman in the red business suit ran over to a heavily armed US Army soldier, who glared into the camera as if it had insulted him somehow. He was a huge man, probably over 6 feet and layered with muscle. He had the standard Special Forces issue 'Second Skin' armor, which molded to the soldier's body and provided ample armor piercing protection alone with chameleon capabilities. He was currently armed to the teeth with an XM-30 pulse ion rifle, a new invention. It used an internal fuel reservoir filled with inactive ion particles. The ion generator in the rifle would split the particles into their highly volatile ions and shoot them out the rails, making for an extremely deadly and effective armor piercing weapon. It's only drawback was that it was slightly larger than a full size assault rifle, making wielding it sometimes ungainly.

_"Captain! Do you have any words before we go down into the secret testing facility?"_ the reporter asked excitedly. Against the Army's judgement, the new president William Shirken demanded a live camera crew to go in with the SF. _"Any words about the inhumane experiements on live human subjects that have been going on for the last 10 years?"_

The captain looked disgusted. _"Tell me lady, you get off on this shit?"_ he asked, levelling his super-glare on her now. _"I've seen half the shit Gaia has created, and when you see it too you'll be puking your Caesar salad out in no time."_

The reporter said no more as she and her cameraman silently followed the squad into the Gaia research facility. It was the last one in the country that was being invaded, and most of its employees had already been arrested. They had recieved word from a defecting scientist that the top heads had bunkered themselves in the underground levels, and then their transmission was cut. Fearing the worst, the president sent his best SF team in, Topher's team, appropriately named "Bad Company".

-----

Walking down the deadly silent corridor, Topher and his men, Jack Jackson (his father was incredibly dull), Samuel Fischer (one of the most amusing of the group, he used to be a small-time comedian) and the newbie, a fresh-out-of-training midget - er, woman - named Conner.

No one really knows how Conner got onto one of the best Special Forces squads in America. She had been a forensics student in college before totally flipping around and joining the army at age 20. Rumor had it she was one of the witnesses to the "Gaia conspiracy" kidnapping 2 years back, but she spoke nothing of it, and the men in her squad were pretty much scared of her whenever some idiot brought it up. It brought back _bad_ memories, even Chris could see that.

Despite her shortcomings, she was an exceptional soldier despite her tiny frame (she was only 5' 4") and as strong as any of the men. She wielded a smaller XM-22 Sub Ion Gun, which was meant for backup support than assault. If it were the old world, the men would be carrying G36 rifles while she had an MP5K. She was also the team's field medic, since she had had forensic and medical education during her 2 years at college before joining the ranks. Her white medic vest had the customary red cross in circle on the back.

"So, what creatures have you 'seen' Captain?" the reporter, Allison Lorento asked. She was the most popular news reporter in Miami (no doubt due to the fact that she had breasts, and a pretty face) and she fought tooth and nail to be where she was now. In the media industry and the creepy corridor.

Chris gave her an annoyed look before raising his rifle. "Oh I dunno, stuff like _that_," he commented casually, opening fire as his squad followed suit.

Allison ducked, along with her cameraman, who aimed his camera at the monstrosity on the ceiling up ahead.

It was hideous. It looked like the skin from its face had been torn off, exposing muscle and bone. The eyes had been hollowed out, leaving nothing but a dark gaping hole for each eye socket. How it could see, no one knew and they _certainly_ weren't going to ask it. Its jaws had been elongated slightly, and the lower jaw had been split in half, each mandible stretching out to each side as it hissed angrily at the intruders. A long, thick tongue snaked out of its jaws, lined with barbs that looked to be sharp and poisonous. Its torso was heavily muscled, with patches of skin missing and mutated muscle enhancing the arms. The arms themselves had massive biceps, and the forearms were covered with four bony claws, going from the elbow out about 4 feet. Each claw looked razor sharp, and the monster had no problems punching holes into the ceiling and walls as it raced around, dodging ion fire. Its legs also had mutated muscle, in tones of red tendons and green veins, and it had five short claws on its feet, each about 4-6 inches long. It had no tail, and its general figure looked to at least once have been human.

"Ya see," Chris yelled, firing his rifle, long blue bolts of energy running down the rails, "We call these motherfuckers 'Imps'. They're damn fast and fucking hard to hit, but once they're hit, they're down for the fucking count."

He continued firing long bursts at the Imp, his squad mates shooting as well. The best part about ion weapons is that since it uses a railgun design, which means no recoil at all. Chris could stand there all day, firing the gun one-handed from his shoulder and never get tired. Of course, continuous fire wasn't recommended, since the ion particles would overheat, causing an explosion. Chris did _not_ favor a blue cloud seperating his bodyparts.

Finally, a wall-aimed shot from Jackson, the team's marksmen, killed the Imp with a bolt to the head, leaving a smoking 2 inch hole. Let it be noted that an ion bolt is about 0.5cm in diameter. The Imp fell with an inhuman screech to the ground, thrashing around as it died from massive brain trauma.

Allison Lorento stared speechlessly at the corpse. The cameraman zoomed in on the smoking husk, not daring to go near it. Suddenly, the camera was jerked upwards and Chris' face smiled down on it somewhat nastily.

"That's one of the things I've 'seen'," he said sarcastically. "There's prob'ly even worse as we get deeper. Cameraman! You and the propriator of those great tits make sure you stay near my squad at all times, got it?"

Though the citizens watching the broadcast couldn't see it, the cameraman nodded silently. Allision nodded as well.

"What did you say about my tits?" she yelled.

-----

It took another hour before they reached the main complex underground. The team had run into a few more Imps, but luckily nothing else. The main door to the complex was a massive 16 foot disc that rolled into the wall once unlocked with the password and DNA test from an employee.

Topher's team didn't have that luxury.

One blast from their disposable particle beam canon (courtesy of Fischer) and they had a nice 7 foot hole through the 4 foot thick titanium door. They went in one at a time, carefully as they scoped the area.

"This doesn't look right," Chris muttered as Conner let the reporter and the cameraman in. There were bodies lying around everywhere. That was to be expected, their contact inside had told them about an outbreak, but normally, the monsters wouldn't be lying on the ground next to their creators...

"Oh Jesus!" Allison gasped, looking at all the deformed (whether willingly or not in the humans' cases) bodies on the floor. The place was a veritable bloodbath, none of the white walls were white anymore, instead they were painted red with blood. Every human in the lobby had been torn to shreds, or if they were lucky, half-eaten.

Lying with the dead scientists were also Imps, and other crimes against nature. Allison and the cameraman zoomed in on what looked like a half-human, half scorpion creature, with a human head and torso, but a scorpion's eight legs and tail. The arms had mutated into scorpion pincers, and the face was a huge mess of teeth. It looked as if it had been blasted with a particle canon of some sort.

Another monster that got some camera time was a worm/snake thing, which had a head at each side, each split into four jaws lined with rows upon rows of teeth. It was a disgusting brown color, like feces and it had been slashed horribly all over its 20 foot length. Allison vomited at the sight of a human leg sticking out of one of the jaws. It had been partially gnawed away at.

More creatures, which looked like human-animal hybrids littered the lobby, and the cameraman didn't have the stomach to film the rest.

"This is not right," Chris said. Seeing Allison's glare, he quickly added, "Even more so right now. Monsters don't generally drop dead next to their inventors... Something else killed the monsters here after they killed the scientists..."

Allison accepted a small water bottle from Conner to clean her mouth. "Y-yeah, that makes sense," the woman stuttered. "What could be worse than... all _that_?"

No one could answer her fearful question. Chris ordered his squad to increase the power level of their rifles by 20 percent, just in case. They left the lobby, going deeper in what looked to be Hell. They didn't bother to search for survivors.

There was no way anyone could survive this slaughter.

-----

Every hallway, every room was filled with blood. The soldiers' boots were stained red, and Allison the news reporter was swearing to burn her heels afterwards. They searched for any survivors, any clue on what had happened here, but all they found was death and destruction. No machine worked, no computer was functional and it was a mystery as to how the lights were still on.

"Sir, check this out," Jackson called. Chris backed up and watched as the man tapped his wrist. A small holograph swirled into view as it showed a map of the complex. "Looks like the power in this one room is fully functional."

Chris checked it out. The map was 2D, so it wasn't very descriptive. All he knew was that the room was huge, and had security stations in a 360 degree perimeter around it. What would require so much damn protection? He shuddered involuntarily, hoping it wasn't whatever killed all the killer monsters out there.

"We'll check it out," he ordered, though feeling queasy about it. "We walk slow, and scope _everything_ out before our next step, got it?"

"Yes sir!" his team barked.

"Move out! You with the titties, make sure you keep up!"

Allison followed with a scowl on her face, mumbling something about a lawsuit once this was over. Conner smirked. She hadn't had to put up with the Captain's ... obsession with breasts when she had joined the team. Thankfully, she had been blessed (or cursed if you thought of it the other way) with small breasts, giving her body the look of a pubescant teenager, which many mistook her for being 15 or 16 at the most. Still, she was thankful for her 'miniscule' as the Captain called them, B cups. She had long learned to put up with his fascination for breasts. Thank god he wasn't an ass man however, Conner's ass was something to be proud of.

-----

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Ah shit, I stepped in some fuckin' brains!"

"Fischer!"

"Oh, clear sir!"

The squad stepped into the main security room in front of whatever held all the power. It was a simple room, not much larger than 50X50 feet, and housed some holoscreens and computers that were fully functional. There were discarded weapons scattered about the ground, some of them last generation. They all used bullets, and there were a few shells lying on the ground as well.

Chris felt uneasy. There was no blood in this room, or bodies other than the brains that Fischer had stepped on outside, but that was the problem.

It was too clean.

"Jackson, fire up that computer and see if you can get any security footage!" he said briskly. "I want to know what the hell went on in here!"

Jackson stepped up to the holopad, holding his arms up. "On it sir!"

A holographic field surrounded his body, and invisible lasers pinpointed his hands and arms. A 360 degree menu surrounded him, and he used his arms and hands to select buttons and drag windows.

"Hmm," he murmured, pulling some files up. "Looks like this room in front of us was the 'big show' section, so to speak. This is where this facility held its biggest experiment."

The others nervously gripped their weapons tighter.

"Any idea on what it was?" Chris asked, his brown eyes scanning the area, making sure the blast doors were shut tightly.

Jack tapped a window to his left and dragged it in front of him. "Welllllllll, only that the name 'Death Angel' comes up," he said with a frown. "Gee, that don't sound reassuring."

"Anything _else_?" Chris asked tightly.

"Hey, I can open the blast shutters on the window!" Jack said, pulling up a menu. "Says the windows are strong enough to resist ion fire, but the shutters are just in case something more powerful tries to get through. I'll open the shutters... now!"

Everyone jumped as the titanium wall in front of them slid away in sections, revealing 3 foot thick ion glass behind it. As the shutters completed folded away, they saw an expansive cavern, with what looked like a massive piece of machinery in the middle. It looked like a giant crucifix, but with modern technology accents, if one morbidly thought. There were thick clamps for where someone's wrists, feet and waist would be and a bed of needles behind it. There were also tubes that dangled above the 'seat', which were dripping a creepily red substance.

What was even more creepy was the surrounding area. It looked like a damn war zone! There were destroyed weapon turrents lying in pieces around the entire area, and a maimed human body lying in front of the 'seat'. The gorund had been blown to shreds in some areas, and there was shrapnel and wreckage all over the place.

"My god, what happened here?" Conner's soft voice asked in horror.

"I'm getting on it!" Jack called from the holopad. "Pulling up the security feeds... now!"

A large holographic screen shimmered in front of them, and they all watched what happened.

-----

_5 hours ago..._

"Shit! Red Alert! Red Alert!" a security guard screamed into a PA system. "Everybody evacuate, power has been lost to the caged areas, the creatures are loose! Red Alert! Red - AAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHH!"

The security guard was skewered by a long claw as an Imp dropped from the ceiling. With and almost lazy gesture, it gripped the man's head with its other clawed hand and ripped the man in half, feasting on his innards. Men and women, scientists and guards ran around screaming as their own creations ended their lives.

In the Maximum Security office, Dr. Edwardo Leone sneered at the chaos that surrounded him outside. He was safe in this room, with his private guard and fellow doctors.

"Edwardo, what do we do now?" a man named Leonard Creedy whimpered. "My wife is out there!"

"Then your wife is dead," Edwardo sneered, waving the man off. "Guards, make sure all 12 security rooms are locked down, especially the blast doors to the Incubator room and the Suit room!"

"Yes sir!" one of the soldiers said, his voice robotic through his helmet. It was one of the same soldiers that had attacked the mall 2 years ago.

"Before you do, I'd like to visit our mutual... guest," Edwardo smiled cruelly. "Make sure nothing... or no one gets in."

He exited the room and entered the cavern in front of the main office. He walked across a 50 foot steel catwalk, passing by dual minigun turrets, ion canon turrents and missile launcher tubes as he headed to the crucifix seat, where his currently project hung from.

He looked lovingly at the figure hanging in front of him, tubes and nozzles feeding unknown liquids into its body.

"Ah... my son," he whispered softly. "Why, I barely recognize you anymore! The Genome virus has done wonders to your frail body!"

-----

The squad and extras watched as the man known as Dr. Edwardo Leone approached a figure on the crucifix. They couldn't hear what was said, but they could see the figure clearly. It was a young man, whose naked torso was rippling with tight, barely constrained muscle, even as he was relaxed. His chest was broad and well-rounded, leading into the curving 8-pack that was his stomach. He wore what looked to be skintight wetsuit material of some sort, maybe Second Skin for pants, although you could clearly see the muscle on his legs as well.

The man's lean, thick arms were stretched out on each side of his body, and his shoulders bristled with corded muscle. They could see him breathing slowly, evenly, as if he were asleep. They couldn't see his face however, since it was hidden behind a curtain of glossy white hair, that reached down to his shoulders.

Leone spoke some unheard words to the man on the crucifix, then seemingly laughed at the figure. That's when it all went sideways for the crazed doctor.

The man rose his head.

Whatever happened next, was too fast for the human eye to see. One second, both men were staring at eachother, then the next second, the man's restraints were shattered, and Leone became a pulp of flesh on the ground.

"Activate defenses!" one of the soldiers screamed.

Every turrent and missile tube in the cavern came to life and aimed at the figure in the seat on the crucifix. A missile tube fired one of its munitions, and the long cylinder flew towards the man. The man himself freed himself of his remaining clamps and started to fall, nearly 40 feet to the ground. The missile changed its course to intercept his fall.

Just as the missle was going to hit, the man became a blur, Chris' eyes nearly missing it but he saw the blur warp slightly to the right before it dissapeared. The missile continued on its course, too slow to change direction and blew up a portion of the wall behind the crucifix.

The team could only watch in silent fascination as the turrents (which appeared to be auto-guided) fire in every direction possible, trying to destroy a target that appeared to be moving faster than the human eye could see. Suddenly, one of the minigun turrents exploded, a large chunk having been ripped from the top and causing the weapon to jam its bullets into the barrels at the wrong time, causing premature explosions. Chris could barely see the figure that had landed on top of the turret, then dissapear instantly as it exploded.

They watched as every single turrent and tube launcher was ripped to shreds by a seemingly invisible assailant. Suddenly, it became silent again as nothing was firing anymore. The soldiers in the main security office were gripping their last-generation rifles in panic, hoping that whatever that man was wouldn't break through to them. One of the soldiers checked the holoscreen and nearly shit himself.

"SIR! HE'S HEADING FOR THE SUIT ROOM!"

"FUCK!" the leader screamed. "Everyone move out! Make sure he doesn't get that God damned suit on!"

They soldiers nearly threw themselves out the door and the video ended.

-----

"Well that was... interesting," Chris said, at a loss of words. "I'm sure you're all thinking what I'm thinking: What the _fuck_, is going on here?"

"I'm one step ahead of you Cap," Jack replied, his arms moving around wildly as he drew up more windows. "I've got their fucking research videos on here as well. Leone ordered them by date. You wanna watch them?"

"Start at the first one!" Chris ordered. The holograph lit up again.

-----

_Project Death Angel video memo_

_April 17th, 2015_

_9:52PM_

"Our new subject has arrived," Leone's voice said as a video of a young man with a bag on his head was dragged into an operating room. "He looks sturdier than our last subject, who only lasted 2 months."

The young man, who couldn't have been older than his early 20's was strapped to the operating table. Four scientists pretty much jumped on him.

"He showed natural anomalies in his blood at birth, showing enhanced intelligence, and later on in his life, unpredicatable spurts of strength. He nearly killed one of my men with a garbage can earlier today before his capture. He is... intriguing."

The scientists began to stab the man with needles, causing him to scream in pain.

-----

_Project Death Angel video memo_

_May 1st, 2015_

_3:45AM_

"The subject has bonded with the Genome virus well. His genetic makeup was nearly symbiotic with the strain. Instead of the virus adapting the body to its needs, resulting in unparalled horrific mutation, this subject's body adapted the virus itself. Amazing!

It showed the young man again, this time without the bag on his head. Strangely, Conner gave a choked sob at the sight of brown hair and green eyes.

"So far very little has changed physically. I expect it to occur within the next few months."

-----

_Project Death Angel video memo_

_August 23rd, 2015_

_12:43AM_

"The subject has begun to have physical changes and manifestations. His facial bone structure has shifted, which may lead to facial reconstruction. Also, his muscles seem to be growing with the slightest movement. Well all know repetitive excercise of a muscle with heavy lifting will increase muscle mass, it's almost as if the mere movement of any muscle on his body increases mass! Incredible!"

It showed a shot of the man's arms, which had thin, but clearly visible wiry muscle on them.

"The muscles are growing at a rate of 1mm per hour. No idea on how large they will become, or how long it will take. We will observe the subject some more."

-----

_Project Death Angel video memo_

_December 25th, 2015_

_6:30AM_

"It looks to be a very happy Christmas for me! The subject's musclature has finally finished, leaving not what we thought. Originally, I had percieved the subject to be a hulking mass of muscle, much like a body builder. Instead, he looks more like a tightly coiled tiger, with taut arms and legs, built for speed over strength."

The man was now very muscled, but still thinner than a musclebound man. He was hanging off of his new home, the crucifix. His hair was a greyish color, with specks of brown. His face had changed from a long shape to a much rounder, heart shape.

"As you can see, the subject's hair has begun to lighten, no doubt due to the stress on his body. We suspect it will lose all pigment and turn white. His facial structure has changed to the point of being unrecognizable, he almost looks like a fantasy character from those video games he used to love. I've ordered him to be relocated to The Crucifix, where he'll be fed a steady diet of the Genome virus and nutrients via IV an spinal injection."

-----

_Project Death Angel video memo_

_February 14th, 2016_

_12:12PM_

"It appears that our subject has become quite popular with the younger female staff. His newly reconstructured face has become quite strikingly attractive, and draws much attention from the women in their 20s, 30s and even 40s! Perhaps this is human evolution, the ability to become physically flawless? Nonetheless, we have begun the process of mental reconditioning. I want my bio-soldier obeying my every whim!"

-----

_Project Death Angel video memo_

_June 29th, 2016_

_9:25PM_

"We have begun a new side project, one that involves a living suit of armor. Initial design and construction has begun, and it will be keyed to the subject's neural patterns. We hope that this suit, when combined with our little Death Angel, will become the ultimate weapon of mass destruction this feeble world will ever see!"

-----

_Project Death Angel video memo_

_April 19th, 2017_

_1:00AM_

"It is quite early that I dictate this memo, and it has been a while since our last one. Everything has been a success. The subject is more powerful than we could have ever imagined! The suit has been completed, using futuristic technology that the idiot military would kill their families for! When wearing it, the subject is nearly invincible! The suit's armor is made out of a new version of Second Skin, which is much more resiliant to bullets, and even ion blasts up to the 7th degree! The armor plating also helps against weapons, and also house the shield generator, something the military would no doubt love to have in their hands.

The shield creates a perfect sphere of negative ion energy that will not only deflect projectile weapons, but ion blasts up to the 11th degree easily! Of course, continuious fire will cause the shield to collapse, but by then most canons would overheat and explode. The suit is equipped with six iode-magnetic thrust boosters. There are two large ones on the back, a medium on each leg and one small one on each shoulder armor. These will allow our soldier to _fly!_ Of course, he can't fly higher than 500 feet or he will run out of iodes to power the boosters, but he can zip around quite rapidly with them nonetheless. As if he needed a suit to move faster than a man can see, but this will allow him to fight in three dimensions now!

The suit is also equipped with six strakes, three on each shoulder. These act as stabilizers, and I guess like wings as well, which help guide him where he wants to go. The best part is that these can also be positioned forward and used as six heavy ion canons! Oh, the genius of my scientists!

Perhaps the most vital part of the suit is the combat helmet. I swear to god my men watch too much Japanese anime, for it looks like something from one of those giant robots! A helmet that looks that robotic yet intimidating is sure to frighten our enemies! The 'eyes' are simply a band of red LED sensors that wrap around like thin, rectangular goggles. Each LED relays light transmissions to the inner eyes, which can only be seen when the LED band splits in half, each part sliding to the side. It will reveal four lenses, two on each side. The two main lenses are the main optic sensors, which provide our toy with a digital view of the battlefield, and offer him battle tactics and estimations on enemy movements. The extra lenses slightly outwards of the main ones provide extra visions, like night vision, infrared and x-ray. The lenses are protected by a wrap-around ion-lense glass. It rather looks like projector headlights on expensive cars to me!

If our soldier toy wants to get some fresh air, a mental thought can do it for him. His neural connection to the suit will allow him to do everything by just thinking of it. The helmet will therefore slide the red LEDs to the side, then the entire eye lense/forehead/scalp section will slide upwards, with the mouth/cheek section folding out and back to the sides, revealing his face.

The suit's armor plating can be ejected easily, but the Second Skin must be removed like normal wetsuits.

We begin field testing tomorrow, the target being the White House. I can't wait! What was that? Those idiots, must be another damn drill..."

-----

Everyone was dead silent at the end of the last memo. There was nothing that they could say at the moment. Who knew that Gaia could go this far?!

"So I take it that that was Leone's kid they experimented on?" Chris asked shakily. "What kind of sick motherfucker injects his son with some crazy virus?!"

"Oh my god," Conner breathed in horror. "Dante!"


	3. The Death Angel?

_The Death Angel?_

"Oh my god," Conner breather in horror. "Dante!"

And then they knew he was there, in the room.

The didn't so much as _hear_ him appear, or see him at all.

_They felt him_.

A presence, one that struck a chord in each and every person in that security room with such mind-numbing fear that they could do nothing but turn around to face the horror that they felt materialize behind them.

Chris Topher too was stuck in fear but as he started to turn around his years of military training rushed back into his mind and he raised his rifle, ready to fire at -

Nothing. There was nothing there at all. The room was empty, save for the squad and newsteam.

"What the fuck is going on?" he whispered harshly.

A shot rang out, the pulse of an ion bolt shooting from his left. Chris turned in surprise, it was Jackson who had fired, probably out of nerves.

Before he could reprimand his soldier, Chris saw the bolt impact into something that was _not_ a wall. The blue bolt of energy splashed into an invisible object, fizzling quietly before dispersing into air. Every soldier in the room raised their weapons. In that split second of impact, they recognized the shimmer of Second Skin chameleon cloaking.

The chameleon cloaking abilities of the Second Skin allowed a soldier to mold in with his surroundings, the micro-organic epidermus on the Skin changing colors to resemble whatever they made contact with. It provided the soldiers with an unprecedented amount of camoflauge, and could only be deactivated with either a push of a button, or by taking damage.

Chris had never seen anything like what he had just witnessed, since their Second Skins didn't allow them to refract light itself, but he knew a Skin suit when he saw one. He tightened the grip on his rifle. If this thing really was the "Death Angel", then he knew his rifle wouldn't be able to penetrate its armor. The XM-30 pulse ion rifles only had a ionic magnitude of 6 degrees, hardly enough to damage the shield, let alone the armor this thing had.

"Show yourself!" he barked to the seemingly empty room. "Or we will open fire!"

They waited for a tense several minutes, the room deadly silent, the tension thick, and rising.

Private Conner held her weapon shakily, and stammered, "Dante?"

In the blink of an eye, there stood a magnificant figure in front of them, not 10 feet away.

The late doctor's verbal description of the suit did nothing to describe it like what the soldiers saw before them. A deep shade of blacked gray was its tone and every part of the suit screamed out "Lethal!" They saw the figure (this "Dante" that Conner seemed so adamant on calling it) standing loosely in front of them, in one strong arm holding a massive weapon of some sort.

The armored titan in front of them stood at least 6 feet tall, though if you included the wing-like strakes poking out from on its back, it was probably 6.5 or 7 feet. Its completed enclosed helmet was tilted towards them, sharp points and angles accentuating the deadly beauty it possessed. The visor of red LEDs glowed faintly as it stared at them, and they stared at it.

Chris was beginning to get very nervous. He didn't know what type of weapon the thing held in its hand, but it was huge, and it looked like it could hurt, a lot. The weapon was a sort of rifle, or canon, and shaped like a skewed 'A'. Both sides came up to a point where a rail protruded about a foot outwards, and the figure's hand clutched the middle piece as it looked like a handrip of some sort. The weapon was the same black-grey as the thing's armor, and it had glowing blue lines that looked like power conduits running along its sides.

_Looks like an ion canon,_ Chris thought. _Impossible! Those things are too powerful for humans to use with their own hands!_

He stepped forward carefully and pointed hs XM-30 at the figure. "Drop your weap -"

In the blink of an eye, the figure raised his massive weapon and fired. Chris and the others threw themselves to the sides as a foot-wide blue beam sailed past them, impacting into the blast windows, melting a hole into them.

"AHH!" Allison screamed as the intense heat singed her jacket. Even though it was several feet away, the beam put out such intense heat that warmed up the room considerably.

"Holy shit!" Fischer yelled, scrambling to his feet. He raised his rifle at the suit of armor, but dropped it immediately when it aimed at him. He waited for his death to come...

It didn't.

Fischer cracked an eye open. The figure had lowered its weapon and continued to stare at them. "Uh, sir?" he squeaked, very unmanly for a strapping African-American.

"What is it Fischer?!" Chris grumbled, getting back to his feet. He had unwittingly thrown himself into a nearby locker, mangling the damn thing and getting stuck.

"If - if we don't raise our weapons at it, it won't attack us," Fischer gulped, keeping his hands up to placate the titan.

"You sure about that?" Chris growled.

"Yes sir! I raised my rifle at it, and then it prepared to shoot me but stopped when I dropped my gun, sir!"

"Alright then lady and gentlemen, I want you to keep your weapons down!" Chris ordered, pushing his squad away from the figure in armor, who was conveniently blocking their only exit. "We'll figure out how to get past it!"

Conner timidly stepped towards the figure, ignoring her captain's order to get back. "D-Dante?" she asked again.

The head swivelled to level its eyes on her. The red LEDs grew brighter slightly, and a small wave on each side focused on her, almost as if the LEDs acted like eyes. Two lit up circles of LEDs were trained on her face now. The figure slowly dropped its canon to its side.

Conner took another slow step towards the giant. "Dante? Do you remember me?" she asked nervously, her heart hammering within her chest.

The figure didn't move.

"We -we took forensics together, remember?" she continued, beginning to babble. "I always sat in the front of class and you were always in the back, snoring away..."

She continued moving slowly, getting closer and closer to the figure in grey while her squad, the newsteam and the world watched with fear.

She was only about 5 feet away now.

"Do you remember anyone? Like Phil or -"

Apparently, she struck a nerve with the titan known as Dante. Some mechanical whirs and clicks were heard, as the canon's handrip slid backwards from the main section of the canon, forming a long round handle. The two halves of the 'A' began to close up together, like a clamshell and formed a curved arrow of sorts. With a sudden flash of blue light, the closed 'A' emitted a bright blue beam of ionic energy that formed a massive bastard sword!

Sara Conner stopped very suddenly, with the tip of the 6 foot sword mere inches away from her neck. She could feel the heat radiate off of it, tickling her throat."D-Dante?" she stammered, holding her hands up. "It's me, Sara, remember? It's Sara!"

The sword wavered. Finally, it dropped. Sara (and about 5 billion people around the world) let out a huge sigh.

A quiet whir caught her attention and she looked just in time to see the red LEDs fade out, the light leaving them. The titan stood still, its beamsword shutting off as well. Everyone waited, holding their breath.

Nothing happened.

"Is it... dead?" Jack asked stupidly. Sara walked up to the titan, looking at it curiously.

"Dante?" she whispered breathily, reaching up to touch the helmet. As soon as he fingers grazed the cold metal, a hum and a whir sounded, and the LED band pushed outwards from its place on the helmet. Sara jerked back in surprise. The LED band then split down the middle and each half slid around the sides of the helmet, dissapearing into what looked like sheaths for them at the sides, near the back of the head. The LEDs seperated to reveal the four white lenses they had heard about.

They glowed white softly as the titan Dante moved again, looking at Sara's face yet again.

_"Sara,"_ he rasped, his voice highly robotic and scratchy. It sounded as if the helmet made his voice echo within itself.

Sara gave a small, happy smile. "Yes, it's Sara!" she said excitedly. She touched the metal-clad head again. "You remember!"

Dante paid her touches no mid and looked around. _"Leave!"_ he ordered harshly, using his free left hand to make Sara raise her XM-22. _"Reavers loose."_

Sara frowned. "Dante?" she asked. "What are Reavers?"

Dante's LED band slid out and pressed back into their recession. _"Go now!"_ he hissed. _"Go!"_

He pushed Sara towards the exit, and pulled on the arms of the soldiers and newsteam. He bodily shoved them through the blast doors and made them start to run.

"What's going on?!" Allison cried as they flew down the corridors, running from yet another unseen enemy. "What the hell are Reavers?!"

_"Ultimate bio-weapons,"_ Dante rasped ominously. _"They killed everything here."_

"RUN!" Chris bellowed, picking up his pace. The made it out of the complex and into the very long corridor that was their exit out of the place.

"SKREEEEEEEEE!"

Everyone held their ears in pain as they stopped running, and in Allison's case, fell to the ground. The noise coming from behind them was literally splitting their eardrums and they turned to see what could make such a noise.

Even the men screamed in terror.

They looked like demons, demons from the deepest and darkest pits of Hell. They once looked human, but their flesh was pale and drawn tightly on their bones, making them look emanciated. Their fingers were elongated, ending in wickedly thin and curved spear-like claws, at least a foot in length. Their legs had been changed, the knees reversed and adopting a sort of dinosaur like posture. They had claws on their toes, and a large sickle shaped claw on their reversed kneecaps.

However, their faces were much more horrific. They say that fantasy monsters are scary, but nothing paralyzes the human mind more than a horrific rendition of their own faces. It was true. These creatures had strikingly human faces, but their eyes were sunken, with no iris or pupils at all, and were just a milky white. Their noses were all but torn off, showing two slits. Their skin was so tight, their cheekbones could be seen and their jaws had been hideously warped, resulting in a sick permanent smile which revealed very long, needle sharp teeth. They gave another deafening screech and the group of at least 10 demons crawled on the ground, walls and ceiling towards their new prey.

_TEEEOOW!_

Dante had turned his sword back into a canon and fired a deadly blast into the wall in front of two Reavers. The explosion vaporized their bodies instantly, not even giving them a chance to scream. He stood there calmly as the power conduits faded black, then slowly started to recharge their blue lines.

Chris, seeing this, ordered his squad to open fire on the beasts, who were no more than 30 feet away.

"Open fire!" he screamed, pouring ion bolts into the monsters. More bolts followed his and another one dropped dead. It seemed as if they were slightly resistant to the weaker rifle fire, and some shots actually just singed their flesh. Sara's XM-22 did no damage whatsoever.

_TEEEOOW!_

Another blast from Dante's canon decimated more of the Reavers, leaving about 5 more. He turned to the Special Forces soldiers.

_"Too many," _he said. _"You should run, I will cover you."_

Chris, not wanting to risk his squad's death, nodded. "Move out people!" he yelled, turning around as Dante faced the Reavers. "Time to haul ass!" He grabbed Allison's hand and jerked her forwards, heading towards the exit. His squad hurried behind him, with Sara looking back.

"Dante!" she cried, watching the lone figure stand before the pack of demons.

_"Go," _he said calmly. _"I will follow."_

She frowned, but turned around nevertheless and started running full tilt towards the exit doors, which were about a hundred feet away. Dante stood there silently as the Reavers surrounded him, each of them screeching eagerly. His helmet's microphone sensors dulled the high pitched screeches so that he could hear them normally.

_"Time to die, my bretheren."_

-----

Sara was the last one out as she burst into light, the entire area filled with soldiers, tanks, hovercopters and heavy ion canon emplacements. Her squad quickly spirited her away from the exit as a technician pressed the button to seal the blast gates.

"You can't bury him in there!" Sara gasped, trying to break free from her captain's grip. "What are you doing?!"

"We can't have such a powerful weapon get loose," a voice behind her boomed. She turned around to face General Rowland Dekler, Five Star General of the US Army. "Who knows what Gaia M. brainwashed that thing with?"

"But sir, he helped us escape!" Sara protested.

"Probably so it could earn your trust and escape itself," he rebuked. "Now are you going to comply or do we have to face a demotion?"

Sara looked at her combat boots dejectedly. "No sir, I understand sir," she muttered.

"Good, no we should all get back since -"

The general was interrupted by what sounded like a sonic boom from withen the sealed corridor.

"What in God's name was that?" General Dekler asked.

Suddenly, the blast doors literally shattered, and everyone ducked as flying titanium flew everywhere. Sara looked up to see Dante in his suit, flying high into the sky as he was covered by Reavers. He used brute force to rip them from his suit, sustaining no damage at all and hurled each one back into the hole in the ground. Still floating in the air, no doubt due to the searingly bright blue jets of light at his back and legs, the wing-like strakes on his back tilted up and over his shoulders, facing forward like a row of six spears.

Dante tilted himself forwards so that the strakes faced the hole in the ground, and their tips began to glow. Sara and hundreds of others watched as the tips seemingly sucked in ambient energy as orange swirls of ionic particles were sucked into the tips like a whirlpool. The barrels hidden in the pointy tips of the strakes began to glow blue, getting brighter with each second.

"GET BACK AND HIT THE DIRT!" Chris screamed, running away from the hole and throwing himself behind a wall of sandbags. Everyone flew to join him.

Sara looked up just in time to see six continuious beams of ion explode out of Dante's strakes, in a straight laser-line of energy. The lines shot down into the hole that led to the secret complex and within seconds, a huge earthquake toppled everyone to their asses and caused nearby structures to wobble.

Finally, a huge eruption not unlike a volcano came from the whole, in bright blue and white lightwork as the explosion reached the outer sky. Dirt, cement, metal and shrapnel flew out of the hole, raining down everywhere. A shockwave pulsed outwards from the blast around, knocking anyone who had gotten back on their feet down again, and even forcing some tanks back and some hovercopters to spin in the air wildly.

Finally, the chaos ended.

Sara Conner looked skywards again. Dante was still up there, floating with the help of his ion thrusters. The strakes pivoted back, facing upwards before moving to lie flush against his back, like angel's wings. They flared outwards to the sides a bit, providing him stability in the air. She saw him look down at all the people on the ground, and somehow she knew he was looking at her.

"OPEN FIRE!"

Sara spun around to see a livid General Dekler pointing his finger furiously at Dante. Her cries of "NO!" were drowned out by canon and artillery fire.

A volly of ion beams, rockets, missiles and sabot shells streaked towards the figure in the sky, yet he hovered there, watching them apathetically.

Just as they were about to collide with him, a bright blue light shot out from his left shoulder, and he shot to the right about 20 feet in an instant, dodging the fire with what looked to be his shoulder boosters.

Sara sighed but then wobbled on her shaky legs as giant footsteps thundered around her. She saw long robotic legs walking around her as the AM-2 tank walkers moved forwards. These recent inventions were basically walking tanks, which had long 12 foot legs that were quite flexible. The mech's hip was an advanced gyro-stabilizer, which prevented it from falling over or tripping. From the hip was a thick armored spine, which rose up 3 feet to the attach to the head. The head was a modified M1A4 Abrams tank turret, which housed weapons on each side of the head and on top. The center was a brain fuselage, which housed the droid computer systems. It had two cameras, one on top and one on its hips so that it could see everywhere. It was armed with a Hailstorm ion repeater on its left side, which was basically the ion version of a minigun. On its right was a dual Hellfire 3 missle launcher. On top of its head were two standard medium ion canons.

The six AM-2s began to open fire at Dante, who had decided to land on the ground. They ran up to him at their top speed, which was just about 65mph. He raised his canon in his arm and fired with pinpoint accuracy, severing one mech's head from its spine, causing both pieces to crash to the ground. Without even pausing, Dante used his jets to fire himself towards the mechs, crossing a 30 foot distance in the blink of an eye. The mechs halted in mid-run, caught off guard and that gave Dante enough time to change his canon into a sword. Moving quickly, he cut the legs from underneath one mech and it toppled to the ground, where Dante impaled its forehead with his blue blade.

He leapt into the air and corkscrewed sideways, narrowly dodging a kick from another AM-2 that would have sent him flying. In mid spin, he slashed at the extended leg, cutting it clean off at the knee and landed behind the mech. It hopped on one leg, trying to stay steady as it turned its head around to try and see its target. Dante leapt straight up, with the aid of his jets and sliced the mech up the middle, causing both halves to fall to each side.

The remaining three ran up behind Dante, firing at him with their Hailstorm repeaters. The ion bolts splashed onto a transparent yellow dome that surrounded the man, and he jumped backwards, backflipping onto the head of the nearest mech. It shook its head wildly, trying to dislodge its unwanted passenger, but one stab to the droid brain ended its movements with twitches as it collapsed.

Leaping off, Dante landed on the next mech and slashed its brain, killing it before jumping again as it sank to its knees. Spinning sideways once, He cut the spine of the last AM-2 and its head slammed into the ground in front of its legs, which tripped over it.

Landing on the ground, Dante stood up straight and looked over to the US Army that was watching him in shock. On his chest, two small plates on each side closed, covering the shield projectors that had guarded him during his battle. He took one last look at Sara Conner before leaping 50 feet into the air, a loud sonic boom erupting from his thrusters as he dissapeared into the city skies...


	4. Rebellion

Thanks for the support so far, I really appreciate the reviews! And don't worry, this may be original fan fiction, but you'll see a lot of games, movies and anime facts and themes incorporated into it. Here's the next chapter, enjoy!

* * *

_Rebellion..._

A lone figure stood on top of a precipice, gazing at the city ahead of it in the distance. A hawk circled above ominously, as if sensing that there was a fellow predator beneath it. Both figure and raptor's eyes darted to a column of dust rising from the exit to the city Miami.

_They are coming,_ Dante thought as the clouds of dust kicked into the air from the wheels, tank treads and robotic three-toed feet brought up. _They are coming for me._

Several of the tanks had converted to walker mode, since the AM-2's legs also doubled as tank treads. Dante saw all of this clearly through his optics in his helmet, the view magnified to 10X. He looked up at his companion.

_"They should be hunting down Gaia,"_ he told the hawk, who listened curiously to the strange noise the creature below it emitted. _"Not I. But I am a Gaia creation, am I not? Perhaps that is why they are hunting me?"_

The red-tailed hawk let out a screech as it looked at Dante one last time, before swooping away into the sky as the missiles approached.

-----

"This is a joke!" Private Sara Conner fumed as she paced around the room. Captain Topher's team was currently on "Forced stand down" and were thus forbidden to join the fight or even leave the compound. It understandably made Sara very angry.

"I mean, he's not even our enemy!" she continued to rant. "He helped us out, didn't he?"

"That he did," Chris said in agreement. "Giant freak or not, I think he's on our side."

"Well definitely not on the Army's side, that's for sure," Jack called from the holo terminal as Sara shot Chris an unnoticed dirty look for his comment. "Check this out!"

The tech wiz had hacked into restricted Pentagon files, and was currently browsing for anything related to the Death Angel or Gaia. He had found nothing on Dante, but surprisingly, some very short files had popped up about Gaia's predecessor company.

"What is it?" Chris asked as the others bunched around Jack. They looked at some files, which showed a symbol of a red and white umbrella.

"It turns out that Gaia M. was created from former employees from this old pharmaceutical company," Jack explained, pulling a file up. "They were called... Umbrella?"

"That's a pansy ass name," Sam commented. Jack ignored him and hummed as he browsed around.

"Turns out that pharmaceuticals weren't the only things Umbrella was making," Jack said, his eyes darting from file to file. "I wonder what this T-Virus is all about?"

"Some sort of biological weapon perhaps?" Chris added in helpfully.

"It says that the T-Virus was unleashed on a mountain town somewhere in the West," Jack said. "It doesn't say much about the outbreak, but barely anyone survived except for about a handful of people, most of them cops."

"What was the city's population?" Sara asked after a short pause.

"Over 200,000."

"Jesus Christ!" Sara swore, then pinched herself for saying His name in vain. "A virus did all that?"

"Looks like there are photo attachments, let's check 'em out..." Jack muttered, poking one with his finger.

A snapshot of a group of decaying people came up.

"Ohhh shit!" Chris cursed, holding his mouth. The people were clearly dead, but in stages of decay so bad that it looked as if they had been dead for weeks if not for the fact that they were walking around. "What are those?!"

"In my opinion, zombies," Jackson said, closing the photo quickly. He opened another one, which showed some sort of reptillian creature with green scales and long claws. On the photo itself in the bottom right corner read _Hunter_. "Another monster..."

He ran through some more pictures, each one showing a new monstrosity like _Licker_, _Tyrant_, _Leech-Man_ and _Cerberus_ before closing them in disgust.

"That shit ain't right," Sam commented, looking queasy. "Bringing the dead back, that goes against Him and all He stands for!"

"You got that right!" Chris muttered, shaking his head as he tried to clear his head of the ghastly images.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, JACKPOT!" Jack yelled, easily cracking and opening a heavily encrypted file. "Let's see what's so important about this file that they put every safeguard they could on it..."

Slowly, words appeared on the screen and all four soldiers craned their necks to read it:

_August 14th, 2005_

_The failures of both the Umbrella Corporation and HCF have left us with no other choice but to disband both companies. We had had high hopes of military applications of their products, but they proved too unstable to work with in the long run. The Tyrant and Tyrant-Veronica viruses were stable, but produced unsavory results. Likewise, the GENE-Virus was too unstable from its conception. Even those damned Las Plagas parasites were too hard to control, although they produced satisfactory results. Instead, we will now focus on creating synthetic viral strains, which would have a much greater chance at cellular bonding with human DNA. We have less than a decade to provide something adequate, so we must work quickly._

_On another note, it appears that I have underestimated that Kennedy fool. It looks like he actually rescued Ashley, and is on his way back to us via Jetski. No matter, I'll have a gunship dispatched to take care of them both. Kennedy was only sent on this mission in Spain to distract him from the fact that his former comrades were being slaughtered by Wesker and his HCF. Now, no survivors of Racoon City will be left, and our work shall be uninterrupted!_

_I haven't much more time, since it is nearing the hour of my so-called "assassination". Once I've been "killed" then I can go back to my research of bonding a synthetic virus with the new technology known as nano-bots. Through these microscopic robots we can now control our future deadly creations. At least one good thing came out of Foxhound. Fortunetely, the Snake genome has all but been destroyed, so we don't have to worry about that superhuman pest anymore. The last one also died of old age as well, thank god and his "friends" have been eliminated several years ago as well._

_I must go now. Once my death has been staged, the new president will take over things shortly, keeping up the innocent government facade while our private military grows stronger. The fools in our regular military are merely sheep, going where we guide them and doing what we tell them. Soon, they will be under our total control through a new virus as well, and with our new company, Gaia Medicinal, we will show the world the pure might that the United States of America wields!_

_President Brandon Graham_

The last words flickered off of the holoscreen and the squad stood in shocked silence. Sara was the one to break it.

"Our government is involved?" she whispered in terror.

"Oh fuck me," Jack moaned. "We're working for the bad guys? But, but we're the good guys! Good guys don't do bad stuff! God damn it!"

Chris shook his head in fury. "Listen up people!" he barked. "Fuck orders! I became a Special Forces soldier by taking my vows to protect the innocent and uphold justice! I see none of that with the government I serve! Therefore as your commanding officer, I order you to disregard any order from a higher-up and suggest we get the hell out of here!"

-----

_The Death Angel stood amongst a sea of flaming wreckage. Twisted scraps of armor and metal lay around him in ruins, and bodies littered the ground. The battle had been fiercely one-sided and short. _

_Stepping over the body of an AM-2, Dante ignored the sparks shooting out of its droid brain and the occasional twitch its legs gave out. He walked slowly towards the city..._

-----

"Grab everything you need, and do it in under 5 minutes!" Chris whispered harshly as his squad raided the supply room. "Make sure you pack plenty of water and rations, we might have a long hike ahead of us!"

"Where are we going Cap?" Jack asked as he slung an XM-30 over his shoulder. He picked out a last-generation pistol, an HK SOCOM .45 and slid it into his thigh holster, along with a spare 3 clips into his vest.

"First we're finding Angel Boy," Chris said after a moment's thought. He nodded towards Sara, who looked slightly more cheerful at hearing this. "Then we're going to avoid our own comrades and allies the best we can while we somehow get to Gaia Island."

"Gaia Island, sir?" Sam asked as he loaded up on ion chambers. Chris nodded tersely.

"Like in every war in history, we take the battle to their playground."

When they finished gearing up, Chris led his team out to the vehicle park, where the army housed some of its tanks, LAVs and armored trucks. There were aircraft hangers nearby as well. They strolled past the security guard, who did a double take before running out of his booth, catching up to them.

"Sir, I'm sorry but I thought you weren't allowed to leave the compound?" he asked tightly, gripping his SCAR L.

Chris fixed the younger man with his steeliest glare. "Are you, a fucking _security guard, _telling me, a _captain_ what to do boy?" he snarled as nastily as he could.

The young man shook his head profusely. "N-no sir, I just thought that -"

Chris interrupted him. "Thought what?" he barked. "If you didn't notice the badges on my uniform, they basically say that I can do whatever I want at my discretion soldier! We've just gotten orders from General Dekler to join him at the battlefront!"

The guard frowned. "I didn't recieve any confirmation for you to take a vehicle sir," he protested. "You don't have permission!"

Chris nearly burst a vein in his forehead. "Permission! _Permission!_" he roared, making the young man jump. "Why don't you run your scrawny ass over to the comm station and explain to the General why I can't leave this compound? I'm sure he'd _looooooooove_ to hear your excuse soldier-boy!"

The man looked as if he wet himself. It was understandable, the general was a very scary man. "N-n-no sir!" he apologized. "You can take whatever you need sir!"

"Very good!" Chris snapped while his team had to look away as they smirked. "We'll be taking a Beramode class cruiser!"

(AN: pr: Bear-eh-moe-dae)

The guard's head snapped up. "Sir!" he complained weakly. "Th-that's an airship reserved for special -"

"Do you _not_ see the Special Forces badge son?!" Chris bellowed. "Get me the God damn access keycodes NOW!"

The man nearly flew away as he hastened to obey Chris' order. Sara looked at her CO in amusement.

"I bet you he's scarred for life now," she mused.

"I've never flown a Beramode before!" Sam said excitedly. "I've only run the simulators!"

"Just don't crash," Chris warned as the guard came back with a set of transparent keys.

They took a hover shuttle to the large airship in the distance. A Beramode cruiser was a heavily armed, heavily equipped airship that suspiciously resembled the Leviathan from that ancient Final Fantasy XII game. In fact, most of the Air Force's cruisers featured fantastical designs mostly because the man who designed them used to work for Square-Enix. Small world...

Anyways, the cruiser itself was about 150 feet long, and 65 feet high. Its cockpit was at the very front of its pointed nose, and its rakish design allowed for many hover strakes to be utilized, for a total of 5. There were 2 huge ones on each side, plus a slightly longer one in the middle at the rear. In-between these were shorter ones used for stablizing the cruiser. The outermost strakes could be swept inwards towards the fuselage for higher speeds, and the ship featured 3 pulse detonation ion engines.

It was armed with a plethora of weapons, ranging from heavy ion canons on the outer strakes, heavy Hailstorm repeaters on rotating turrents for defense (these were situated at the top and bottom of the ship, 2 in the middle and 2 at the rear), and 2 huge missile bays that could carry anything from 400 Silhouette medium-range missiles to 50 continental .25 megaton nuclear missiles on their rotary launchers.

There was enough room for 6 people to be seated in the cockpit, and while it usually required 2 pilots, it could be run with just one. There were stations for navigations, weapons systems, radar, etc. Behind the cockpit was a short hallway with 5 dormitories on each side, and at the end was an elevator. The elevator could take you down one level to the decently sized kitchen/dining room and rec room. Another level down took you to the engine room and other mechanical rooms. Going up would take you to the hallways to the defense turrents.

In the event of an emergency (such as the cruiser being heavily damaged or about to crash) there were 2 shuttle craft that could be used to escape. Each could hold a maximum of 20 people, and were lightly armed with medium canons and dual 10 round rocket launchers. They had a maximum range of 100 miles before refueling.

(AN: Google the Leviathan from FFXII, it's sweeeeeet.)

-----

"Well, let's see what this baby can do!" Sam gloated as he sat in the pilot's chair. A push of a button opened a key reader, and he placed the four keycodes into it. A whir and hum announced the keys being read, and the ship powered up. Holographic controls lit up, surrounding the African-American and he slid his arms into the steering column, which resembled a 2 pronged fork. His fingers wrapped around the force-field emitting handgrips and he gave it a test. The cameras to the outside of the ship showed that all the required flaps, ailerons, tailerons and strakes were moving properly. He rotated the handrips forward 10 degrees and the engines hummed as some energy was put out.

"We got green lights all around," Jackson reported from his status station. "Ground Control is giving us the clear. Ready when you are Fischer!"

"Roger that," Sam said, opening the comm link. "Ground Control, this is Beramode class cruiser 9-6-A-7, callsign _Agito_ requesting permission for take-off."

"_Request granted 9-6-A-7 Agito, happy hunting."_

Sam pushed his feet into the pedal controls and pressed downwards, activating the vertical ion thrusters and feeding power to them. He then pushed the steering column down and forward while rotating the handgrip to the full 90 degrees. The cruiser vibrated as the thrusters blasted out energy, lifting the 2000 ton airship into the blue sky. Once they were at a safe 500 feet, Sam eased off the pedals and shifted the column back to its normal position, turning the handgrips to 50 degrees and flicking the thumb switch on each one.

The vertical thrusters slowly shut off as power was diverted to the main triple engines, and a 3 bright blue spheres of light erupted from the tail of the airship, propelling it forward. The outer strakes expanded for increased manoerverability and the shorter strakes angled downwards slightly to keep the cruiser stable in flight.

The Beramode was off.

-----

The armored Angel watched imperiously as the mighty US Army retreated with their tails between their legs. True, they had military might and power, but when they pitted such massive force against a single, small enemy that was lightning fast, they stood no chance. It was age-old knowledge that speed and agility would win against brawn and brute force everytime. How could the enemy destroy you if they couldn't land a hit on you?

_"Tseeeeeeeeeer!"_

Dante looked up to see his burgandy colored friend. The raptor floated lazily in circles above him, having come back after the battle had ended. It screeched once more and flew to Dante's left. His head turned to see where it was going and he spotted a grey dot in the air in the distance. Zooming in, he saw it to be some sort of aircraft. It was heading straight towards him, but showed no hostile signs. _Interesting._

When it was about 100 feet away, cruising slowly, Dante fired his jets, easily lifting himself up to around 400-500 feet and landing on the nose of the huge ship just as it reached him. He stood there, not even swaying to the heavy wind as he peered into the cockpit canopy, which was tinted a strong gold color.

Inside his helmet, Dante grinned wryly. Peering back at him in awe was Sara, and her little squad.

_So they've joined the fight I see. Excellent._

He made a motion with his hand to signal that he wanted to come in. The leader of the group nodded and pointed up and backwards, mouthing the word _hatch_. Dante nodded and walked over the canopy, and along the top of the airship. He saw a hatch open near a weapon turrent and wasted no time in jumping down it.

-----

"Great, we've got him on board!" Chris exclaimed. "Fischer, activate the stealth measures!"

"Aye aye Cap'n!" Sam said in his best pirate accent. He slid his right arm out of the steering column and pressed a floating holographic button on the arm of his chair. A shimmer outside signalled the ship's light refracting abilities, and radar-stealth capabilities. "We're gone."

Chris opened the hatch to the hallway and Sara followed him out, eager to meet Dante again. They walked briskly to the elevator and went up to the turret hallway, where the titan was waiting for them. Sara beamed and didn't hesitate in running full tilt towards him.

"Dante!" she cried, stopping inches away from his large frame and pressing her hands against his chest - well, the clear armor plating on his chest. "It's good to see you again!"

She was answered with whirring, humming and mechanical clicks. The LED band wrapped back, revealing the quad-eyes. Said eyes and forehead section of the helmet pushed out an inch and slid upwards, curving back over the top of the head. The cheeks of the helmet pushed out as well, before folding back to press against the sides of the helmet. Sara gasped at the face before her.

Full lips curled into a smirk. Shining green eyes sparkled deviously at her. Arched eyebrows and long lashes framed those large, round eyes. A pale, slightly tanned heart-shaped face that was perfectly formed and unblemished was drunken by her eyes. An aqualine nose, perky and small, rested above the smirking lips.

Hands suddenly blocked the gorgeous view as Dante made to remove his helmet. Once off, a shock of glossy white hair curtained around his face, in a unique hairstyle. At his forehead was a fringe that reached his eyebrows. Going off to the sides, it increased in chunky, spiky length as the tips at the sides of his face met his chin, then grew longer and longer as it reached the back of his head, reaching past his shoulderblades. It was beautiful.

Dante looked like a very beautiful man, or an extremely handsome woman, whatever you would call it. The late Dr. Leone's notes weren't kidding at all.

"Sara," he greeted, his voice deep, low and smooth. "Good to see you again."


	5. Human

Short chapter, but it's some nice side-action. Oh yes. Action. Hehehehe. You know, I always imagined Sara's voice being something very similar to the voice actors for Yuna from FFX or Shion from the Xenosaga ... saga. Very breathy voices that I could listen to all day. If you haven't played the Xenosaga series, I suggest you pick them up! They're simply put, epic! And Shion rules! But seriously, Xenosaga's story simply blew me away, and you'll see some elements of it in future chapters.

Disclaimer: Yet again, I don't own anything that you already recognize, but I sure as hell like to play with them.

* * *

_Human_

Sara could only smile widely at the handsome figure before her. "I'm so happy to see you again," she said softly, pressing one hand to her bosom. "I always knew you'd somehow survive."

Dante grinned. He began to follow the two to the cockpit. "At first I thought I had died, which wouldn't have been so bad," he commented, drawing Sara's confused frown. "What? I had saved your life, stopped the attack... death seemed very fair for me. But, waking up to the feelings and injections... Hmph, let me just say that then, I would have welcomed death."

Sara burst into tears and clutched onto his arm. "Oh Dante," she sobbed. "It was terrible just watching it, I can't imagine how it was for you!"

Dante placated her with a gentle touch to her cheek, and she withdrew with a blush. Dante, not noticing, continued his speech. "Several times my wish was granted, and I died at least 5 or 6 times," he announced. "But every time, that damn G-virus would reanimate me, taking me from the warm embrace of death back to the pains of life. There were times when I just wanted to give up but... Well I had to live, live to avenge my mother and all those lost to Gaia."

"I still can't believe it sometimes," Chris commented. "How could people do such things to their fellow man and woman?!"

"One of man's many sins," Dante answered as they neared the bridge. "Greed. There's a lot of money to be made with this sort of technology, if you could even call it that. I am but a mere prototype in Gaia M's eyes, something that would pave the way to an entire bio-organic army."

"Prototype?" Sara asked. He nodded.

"I'm a 100-series bio-mechanical combat weapon," Dante said quietly, looking down at the ground. "My... mother, she was a 99-series B.M.C.W."

Sara took his hand gently into hers. "I'm so sorry," she said lamely, knowing that anything she could say wasn't much.

Dante shook his head and withdrew his hand from hers. Already, she missed the warmth he gave her. "That is why I must stop Gaia," he explained, picking up the pace again. "They've already gotten enough data from my experiment to proceed with a new series, the final 101 B.M.C.W. and I can assure you, _we don't want that to happen_."

Chris paled. "Wielding such power..." he trailed off, his implications well known.

They entered the bridge where everyone welcomed Dante, if not a bit warily.

"Quite a fancy ship you have here," Dante told Fischer as they sailed through the clear blue skies. "This wasn't in the fleet when I was... well you know."

"It just finished prototype phase III last year," Fischer explained, eager to show off his new toy. "And the US Air Force commissioned a working version, this one, to get some simulated real-life battle testing. Of course, _our_ mission should count as well, don'tcha think?"

Dante gave the older man his strange grin. "Of course," he responded.

-----

Sara entered her room in the living quarters and closed the door. With a sigh, she leaned against the wall and shook her head. Even though he was back, Dante complicated things. She just didn't know what to think or do about him.

She got off of the wall and headed to the small shower unit in the corner of the room. Stripping the clothes off her petite, lithe frame, she entered the circular shower room and locked the rotating door.

"Activate shower, 100 degrees," she ordered.

The six water lines began to softly rain shower down upon her from all around. It was pleasantly hot, and she got used to it quickly as she began to lather up. Her thoughts began to stray back to Dante. Strange, they always seemed to be on him lately.

Sara had dropped her studies in her second year of university after his kidnapping and supposed death. She had fought with her parents about it when she declared that she was going to join the army, and moved out of her home in order to gain independence. She spent a month studying and researching on the military and decided to apply as a field medic.

She had been originally ostracized for doing this, but she worked hard and finished basic and advanced training after a year and a half, which boggled her instructor's minds. She had been immediately recruited into the Special Forces for her skills and had been with Captain Topher and the guys for roughly another year. When news of Gaia's deceit broke out, she had been righteously excited about being one of the teams that would crack down on their research facilities. It was the last one that had made her life in the army worth it. Dante's father's lab.

She finished her shower some 15 minutes later and stepped out into the room with a fluffy towel wrapped around her. She absentmindedly began to search for her panties and a training bra.

"I thought that Special Forces were supposed to survey their surrounding areas before moving in," and amused voice broke out.

Sara screeched and her arms flew up to cover herself - bar the towel - as she glared furiously at Dante, who was standing at the door. "Dante!" she shouted. "What the hell are you doing in my room?"

He shrugged innocently. "It's been 2 years, I missed you," he said simply. She noticed that he was without his suit, and was looking very delic - nice in a pair of black jeans and a sleeveless turtleneck he got from God knows where.

At his words, Sara melted and gave him a warm smile. "Oh you!" she scolded good heartedly. "Always had a way with words, ever since high school you know."

Dante smirked and began to prowl around the small room, examining objects of interest. "The best way to keep bullies away was to confuse them," he remarked, picking up a holopicture of Sara's family. He scrutinized it for a moment before putting it back. "You seem to have been well prepared for a quick getaway," he pointed out.

Sara shrugged. "We always bring a pack full of personal effects whenever we have a new mission," she said. "Helps us settle in nicely."

She then eyed him warily. "Where did you get those clothes?" she asked suspiciously.

Dante rolled his eyes and held his hand out in front of him loosely. His eyes scrunched a little in thought and he flared his fingers out, emitting a bright orb of light. It crystallized into what appeared to be a large suitcase, which settled onto the floor. Finished, Dante kneeled and opened it, which revealed many articles of clothing and neccessities.

Sara "Ooohed!" appropriately. "A Pocket Dimension?" she asked excitedly. "Wow, I thought those were only in Beta testing!"

Dante shrugged. "Works for me," he said non-commitedly. "I have several for my things, such as my suit and weapons. This one stores clothes."

He waved his hand at the suitcase and it shattered into shards of white light before dissolving into thin air. "Speaking of clothes, where are yours?" he asked with a lecherous smirk. Sara huffed.

"I was getting to that but _you_ barged in before I could!" she accused. She turned around to her dresser and started to open it.

A large pale hand pressed onto the dresser door and Sara squeaked uncharacteristically as Dante's lean figure loomed in front of her. "Now where's the fun in that?" he growled sensually as he somehow manouvered himself to press Sara against the wall.

"Dante..." Sara breathed as he pressed himself into her tightly, her trembling hands on his sculpted chest. "S-stop it."

His burning emerald eyes tore into hers as he stared at her with emotions that she had yet to see from the warrior. "You don't want me to," he whispered dangerously before lowering his head to hers.

-----

An hour later, Sara hobbled from her room, thoroughly exhausted. _Well, he sure got confident,_ she groused as she winced as another flash of pain from between her legs caused her to hobble even more. She had been a virgin, and she and Dante had not been so gentle in their passionate lust. She wobbled into the dining area.

"Hey midget, what's - hey what's wrong with you?" Chris asked as he watched his medic limp around the room, getting her food.

He was highly amused as she blushed brightly, her pale face making her flushed cheeks more radiant. "Uh - umm nothing?" she half stated, half asked.

Just then Dante walked into the room and shot her a smirk before settling down to some milk. Chris' head swung from Dante's totally, extremely, ridiculously satisfied smirk to Sara's huge blush.

"No way!" he gasped. Sara turned even redder and refused to look at him while Dante refilled his glass, nonplussed. "You're fucking shitting me! No way!"

"No way what?" Jack asked as he waltzed in, grabbing a box of oatmeal.

Chris pointed at Sara and Dante. "No way!" he said agian, too much in shock to say anything else. "_No way!_"

"ALRIGHT WE GET IT!" Sara yelled, slamming her oatmeal bowl onto the table. "God, give it up!"

"What seems to be the problem?" Sam asked, frowning at the scene in front of him. The captain was currently teetering on his stool, pointing haphazardly at the medic and pseudo-human while Jack stood loosely off to the side, just as confused as he was.

"They -they -they," Chris babbled. He turned to Dante. "Can you even _do_ it?" he asked incredulously.

"I'll have you know I'm well-equipped to 'do it' as you so brusquely put," Dante said haughtily. "My external composition is over 70 percent organic after all."

By now Jack and Sam had gotten it. "No way!" they both yelled.

Sara thunked her head onto the table. "Not again!" she moaned.

Just then, quiet music filled the room - One Winged Angel Remix to be exact - and everyone turned to Dante.

"Ah, I've got a call," he murmured before reaching into his jeans pocket. He pulled out a small rectangular object that was a sleek gunmetal in color and about 10cm long and 4cm wide. He squeezed it in his hands and it extended out sideways in two halves. A glass panel inside slid upwards and projected a small holoscreen. Dante put the device to his ear.

"Hello, I've been waiting for you to call," he said into what the others knew to be a holophone. "Where are you? ... Really? Head out to the city outskirts, we'll pick you up there. ... Yes, your friends are with me. ... See you soon."

He pulled the holophone from his ear and squeezed the sides again, causing the device to close up to its nondescript rectangular form. "Pilot, we'll need to make a stop," he announced to the befuddled group.

"What for?" Chris asked. "Who are we picking up?"

"That woman that accompanied you to the lab," Dante answered, finishing off his second glass of milk. "There are far darker things going on now, and having the ear of the press would do us great favor in this upcoming war."

Chris scratched the stubble on his chin. "War huh?" he said. "Well, if you say so Mr. Robot-Man, then I guess we'll go pick up Miss Funbags."

"Indeed." was Dante's dry response.

-----

"Nice ship you've got here," Allison commented as she boarded the _Beramode Agito_. "And if it isn't the superman himself!"

Dante raised an eyebrow at the woman. Allison Lorento was an attractive news reporter for California, with good reason. She had the typical blond hair - though hers was natural - that fell to her shoulders and was simply parted down the middle and thickly braided with three braids on each side of her head. She had wide ocean-blue eyes that were as pretty and sparkling as the water they represented, and a beautiful enough heart-shaped face with very pink bowtie lips. She possessed an athletic body that was around 5'7" and was very statuesque with most of her height coming from the long, silky legs beneath her well-toned torso. Apparently a decent portion of her weight came from her D-cup breasts as well.

Dante had contacted the woman shortly before his battle with the army. He needed someone who could expose the _real_ goals of Gaia, and felt that her fiery attitude and unrelenting 'quest' for the truth (albiet, truth that brought in the motherload of money) would no doubt help him in his war against the people who made him what he was.

"Hello again Miss Lorento," Dante greeted politely. He inwardly smirked as his tone made the woman uneasy. It was so much fun to act like a robot. "Are you ready to find the truth?"

Shaking her head quickly, she beamed up at him and brandished her handheld holocam. It was a device the size of a PDA, but shaped like one of those old pistol-grip remote controls for toy cars. It had a directional pad and QWERTY keyboard on its small surface, along with other buttons. When activated, it would project a 10 inch holographic screen that displayed whatever it's microcamera was recording at the time. It also had internet access, and doubled as a web camera since the microcam could swivel around to face the user. It was an expensive piece of recording equipment, since it packed an organic cell processor and 10TB of hard drive space, but Allison could easily afford its $12,000 price tag with her salary.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" she said bravely, although she could tell that Dante saw right through her facade. Truthfully, she was terrified about what Gaia or the government would do to her once they found out. "You - you'll keep me safe right?" she asked shakily.

Dante raised his eyebrow. "To the best of my abilities, if need be," he said sagely.

Chris slung his arm around Allison's shoulders. "Don't you worry your pretty little head off!" he told her with a large smile. "Me an' the boys - pardon me - and the little missy will take good care of ya too! You got nothing to worry about!"

Allison rolled her eyes. "If that's the case, can you stop looking down my shirt then?" she asked him sarcastically. She was wearing a very low cut V neck dress shirt under her women's suit jacket, and it displayed a very generous view (pretty much half of each) of her breasts. Chris backed off, his hands up.

"Hey sorry, but you can't tell me that you pick that shirt _not_ to draw attention to 'em?" he asked.

Allison's left eye twitched and suddenly the captain was left all alone with her.

-----

_WHAM!_

Sara smirked as she lolled about on her bed. "Well, I never thought I'd see the day when the captain finally got his uppance from one of the women he ogled," she said airily as she watched Dante do some maintenance on his sword-gun-thing.

It was currently in sword mode (that's what she called it at least) and the four foot blade of glowing light lit up the room nicely. The blade was about 6 inches wide from the pommel, and it widened out to about 8 inches from its arrow shaped tip. It was a dual-edged bastard sword, she could tell that much and it was as beautiful as it was deadly. Dante was adjusting its power output amongst other things.

He looked up at Sara and smirked. "Oh, they're not fighting," he said in a knowing voice.

Sara sat up. "What do you mean?" she asked curiously.

"The captain's heart rate has increased by 24 percent," Dante said in a freakishly robotic tone. "I also detect low levels of adrenaline and high levels of hormonal stress in his body. His breathing patterns are erratic, which could mean strenuous activity."

Sara gaped wide eyed at him. "You can actually detect people's life signs?" she asked in shock.

Dante nodded. "While most of my body is composed of organic material, many of my interior functions have been replaced with bio-mechanical organs or enhancements," he explained. "My brain is in fact completely bio-mechanical synthesis, incorporating devices to control my higher bodily functions, enhanced sense and my suit."

Sara frowned sadly. "Are - are you even human anymore?" she asked in a small voice. Her bed shifted as Dante's weight settled itself on it. He put his arm on her shoulder.

"I am, and at the same time, I'm not," he said wistfully. "What is to be human? I always thought that it meant having something akin to the human mind, not its body. After all, its our feelings, emotions and actions that make us human, are they not? That, is what seperates us from being animals, I think."

He nodded his head. "Yes. I am still human, and that small part of me is good enough for me."

Sara sniffled and wrapped her arms around Dante's body. "Me too," she whispered.


	6. Sister

One of my nicest chapters, I think. I hope you like it :D

I've drawn a preliminary sketch of an AM-2 tank walker. If you guys are interested, I can upload it and post the link in my Author Profile. Just say so in a review :D Also, I'm going to get more in-depth with Dante now, and he'll take up the lead as main character. However, there will still be chunks or even full chapters from the secondary character's points of view, where it will show an outsider's view on Dante and other subjects. I plan to make this story very detailed.

* * *

_Sister_

"Oye. Robo-man. Where are we heading again?"

Dante made a sound suspiciously similar to a snort and stepped up to the pilot's area. "The Carpathian Mountains," he answered quietly. "Near Romania."

"What for?" Jack asked from his console. "Are we going to check out Gaia facilities there?"

Dante nodded silently. Something clicked in Sara's mind.

"Of course, only America has taken steps to stop Gaia so far," she said, tapping her chin with a finger. "I guess it only makes sense that we get rid of any other labs. But, shouldn't we head for home base at Isla Sorna?"

Dante shook his head. "While I was down in that hellhole, I found out some things," he said declared. "Too many loose lipped idiots working for my father. Turns out that one of the Romanian labs bred 97-series B.M.C.W.'s that weren't complete failures. Apparently they succeeded in injecting the G-Virus into freshly fertilized eggs and bred humans in test tubes. They were pretty tight lipped about it, but from what I heard there were a few 97s that survived initial testing and are still being held in their tubes."

"Are we going to save them or something?" Chris asked curiously. Dante's expression hardened.

"The exact opposite," he answered coldly. "I don't need any distractions or competition. Pilot, hurry it up."

-----

"Sir, we've got a faint thermal source on our sensors," a non-descript radar operator said in Romanian. "It's almost undetectable, but we have gotten faint flashes every once in a while that leads us to believe that it is some sort of aircraft and not the weather."

The ranking officer grinned unkindly at the holoscreen. "Well then comrade, what do you say we have our ... _friends_ greet them once they arrive?"

"Yes sir. They seem to be heading towards the moutain facility in an erratic fashion, perhaps to try to throw us off. Whoever their pilot is, he's very good. He's already flown past the facility 7 times, each time being completely different in approach from what we can garner from the altitude vectors."

The officer chuckled. "Whoever they are, they won't be leaving us once they land," he sneered. "And we'll keep that interesting craft they have as well!"

-----

"Ugh," Sara muttered as she looked out the window. They had landed in a flat spot near the mountain and had disembarked onto one of the ship's hover LAVs. She was currently looking out in distaste at her surroundings.

"So dark and cold," she continued morosely, looking at the dead vegetation and rotting trees around her. "It's as if death has touched this place..."

"_Probably because it has,_" Dante answered from his station at the 40mm launcher up front. He was suited up and ready for combat. "_Anything Gaia touches brings death and destruction."_

They drove along for another half hour before Jackson's computer displayed some readings.

"Here we go folks," he said, typing furiously and accidently jostling Allison's camera with his elbow. "Whoops sorry! The mountain wall 3 o' clock to us has a higher density than usual. The elemental readings show that the wall is in fact made out of titanium. I'm thinking it's a door?"

"_You thought right,_" Dante answered, opening the hatch up top and hoisting himself onto the top of the armoured carrier. "_You might want to stop, driver._"

"Name's Sam," Sam grumbled.

"_Whatever,_" Dante replied listlessly as he withdrew his canon from his pocket dimension. "_Bang._"

_BOOOOOOOM!!_

The fake wall was reduced to smoldering liquid metal as Dante's canon obliterated it. Klaxxon alarms sounded off, but after a few tense minutes, no one came to attack them and the sirens died out.

"Eh? What's this?" Chris asked as he charged his XM-30. "No welcoming party? I'm insulted!"

Allison rolled her eyes. "Keep it in your pants soldier-boy," she muttered, but somewhat fondly. Chris chuckled lecherously.

"That wasn't what you said last -"

"_Shut up,_" Dante said tersely. "_Let's go in already._"

They quickly drove into the facility's entrance and exited the LAV, guns at the ready. Chris expertly directed his squad around to set up a perimeter and search for any hostiles, but Dante and Jack's scanners showed nothing. In fact, it was a veritable ghost town in there.

"Look's like the party's over," Jack said as he glanced at his scanner. "Showing a large number of organic life-forms, but none of them exhibit any signs of life. It's like Miami all over again..."

"_Be wary,_" Dante warned. "_The creatures won't show up on life scanners._"

Sara tightened her grip on her XM-22 and shivered. If possible, this place was even creepier than Miami. At least _that_ facility had functioning lights. The ones here flickered at best, casting long, ominous shadows. Sara's mind kept making them turn into monsters and other ghouls of the night. The intense beam of light her weapon gave out didn't reassure her.

"I hate the night," she muttered, her eyes flickering left and right. "So cold and uninviting. Death's embrace..."

Dante flicked his canon once and it transformed into sword mode. The bright blue beam blade made a large halo of light that made Sara feel slightly better. If not for the light, then for Dante's skill with said sword.

"_Hayaku," _he ordered. "Quickly, let's go already."

-----

"There's nothing here!" Allison declared as they headed down their fifth hallway. "Didn't you say there were bodies or something? Where is everyone?!"

"I don't know!" Jack spluttered, frustrated. "There should be corpses everywhere! God damn it, I wish all the lights were on!"

"_Trust me, you're not missing much,_" Dante said dryly as he looked around. It was completely bare and empty. The entire facility was a ghost town, there were no humans, creatures or even bodies, despite what his sensors told him. Even the facility itself looked untouched. There were no signs of struggle, fights or even usage of anything there. There was no blood staining any surface, the computers looked brand new despite being several years old in technology and some haven't even been booted yet. The whole place looked... brand new.

And yet... the entire place stank something fierce. He could smell it.

"_The main B.M.C.W. section is just up ahead,_" Dante said suddenly, startling Allison. "_Let's go see what abominations Gaia M. cooked up there."_

They entered an expansive room that had very high ceilings, at least 50 feet high. It was barren, like most of the facility save for the center, which was made out of titanium and had what looked to be circular depressions in the floor. There was a holo-console nearby.

"_Check it out,_" Dante ordered Jack. A nod from his captain prompted the man to access the computer's data system.

"Hmm, well, not much here," he announced after some hand waving. "Most of the data has been hard-erased and whatever's left is heavily fragmented... I doubt I could get a single word out of this shit."

"_What about machine commands?_" Dante asked. Jack waved around a bit more.

"Something about locking the doors, don't need that... Alarm system, nope... hey, maybe this?" he said, reaching out to a white holographic cylinder. He grasped it with his hand and twisted it.

The room started to shake as loud mechanical grinds were heard. Everyone stumbled to keep their balance and Chris drew his rifle. "Dammit Jackson, what'd you do?" he hollered.

"I released the locks on something called 'embryos'!" Jack apologized as he jumped down from the console, shouldering his rifle in the process. "Sorry!"

Everyone took a defensive stance (minus Dante, who stood in front apathetically, and Allison, who hid in the rear) as the circular depressions opened up to reveal long glass cylinders. There were six total, and each were about 8 feet high and 4 feet wide. Five of the cylinders were broken, with the glass shattered on one side as if something had broken out but one was still intact...

It's glass had been fogged over and they couldn't see much inside the murky green depths. Dante cautiously walked towards the cylinder, which probably held some sort of Gaia M. monstrosity or worse. His sword was at the ready... Chris and his squad had their weapons aimed around Dante at the cylinder for backup.

"_Something is alive in here,_" Dante whispered, pressing his fingers against the cool glass. The glass cracked, but not from Dante's strength.

-----

"They've entered the abandoned facility," a voice said deeply. "They are at its deepest levels. Orders?"

"It will be their new grave," another voice said. "Just like all the others."

"Very good."

"Send them out."

"Roger."

-----

"Dante..." Sara called shakily but it was too late.

The glass cylinder exploded and rained glass and green liquid all over Dante's suit. Even his lightning quick reflexes had been surprised at the suddeness of this and he couldn't move as something slammed into his stomach.

Everyone made to fire, but stopped, unsure, since it didn't look like Dante was being attacked. In fact... _What the hell?_ Sara wondered.

A pair of thin, pale arms were wrapped around Dante's waist, in what appeared to be... a _hug_?

"_Frate_!" an incredibly sweet voice chirped.

"_W-what the?"_ Dante gasped.

Looking down, he saw the creature that had him in a vice grip and couldn't even think for a moment. Wrapped around his waist was a tiny young girl, whose face was beaming up at him happily. She had a heart shaped face very similar to his and extremely long white hair also like his, that reached to her knees. When she finished beaming, and settled for a wide smile, she opened her eyes to reveal violet orbs that were large and wide. She was breathtaking, if not quite young. Pushing the girl back at arm's length, Dante saw that she was dressed in standard Gaia M. test subject clothes, which consisted of form-fitting white cotton pants and long sleeved shirt, which had velcro straps on the legs and arms. These straps could be attached together if the subject had to be restrained. Her identification was on a small badge on her tiny left breast, and it read _97-serious, num__ăr 16 - Fiojna _(97-series, number 16 - Fiona).

"_Eu am chelner un timp îndelungat pentru tu!_" the girl giggled, pressing against Dante again. She barely came up to his chest in height. Dante's onboard translator printed out what she had said to him on his inner display.

"_What?_" he dumbly asked in English. She looked up at him and cocked her head to the side.

"Oh, yoo speak dat?" she asked in a heavy Roman accent. She looked around Dante at the other broken cylinders curiously. "Vhere are our seesters?"

She broke away from a thoroughly confused Dante and wandered around the empty cylinders, examining each one. She spoke some Romanian each time she looked at one. She looked to be getting sadder and sadder as she passed each one.

"Vhere are seesters?" she asked sadly, touching the broken glass of one cylinder. "I am very sad. I vanted them to meet big brother... Seesters, vhere are yoo?"

She timidly walked back to Dante, and held his hand as if she were frightened. She turned her big violet eyes up at him. "Ve find them, da?" she pleaded.

"_Who are you?_" Dante asked in wonder. The girl smiled up at him and clutched onto his arm with both of hers.

"Yoo vouldn't know us, da?" she asked. "Ve are precursers to the von hundred series, da. The bad men try to make many of us, but many of my seesters died because of bad men. Vhen they found out dat ve had no powers like yoo, big brother, the bad men get very angry. Many seesters had bad things happen to them. They vere used as toys, but I vas special, so I vas lucky."

The young girl looked at the surrounding cylinders sadly. "My last seesters vere vith me last time I remember," she frowned, putting a finger to her lips. "I hope they are okay."

"_Is your name... Fiona?_" Dante asked. She beamed.

"Yes big brother!" she chirped.

"_And what makes you special?_" he prodded.

"Ummm," she made a thoughtful expression and put the finger from her lip to her temple. "Ah! I see mind!"

"_You... see mind?"_ Dante asked incredulously. She nodded cheerfully.

"I see big brother's mind," she said. "I see vooman vith gun mind. I see man vith gun mind. I see mind."

She pouted unhappily. "Big man vith gun vant to shoot me," she pouted. Dante looked over his shoulder to Chris, who lowered his XM-30 quickly.

"Uh, er, well yeah," he said sheepishly. "I was thinkin' bout it."

Dante turned back to the girl Fiona. "_You can read minds!_" he gasped. She just smiled up at him.

"Da!" she said happily.

Sara braved herself and walked up to Dante and the girl. "How - how old are you?"

"I am sixteen," Fiona stated proudly.

"You look 12," Sara said dryly.

Fiona "hmphed" and tossed her long translucent hair to the side with a flick of her hand. "Blame the bad men," she said. "They make us age slow. Ve vere born vith Albinism OCA1. But luckily, ve veren't veak like normal hoomans vith OCA1."

"That explains the skin and eyes," Jack said as the rest walked up. "She's very pale, but it looks healthy, kinda like yours Robo-dude."

Dante growled and opened his helmet. "How many times do I have to tell you?" he grated. "I'm - somewhat - human!"

"Get rid of the suit and we'll talk," Jack waved dissmissively. He knelt down to look Fiona in the eye. "So little lady, can you explain what happened here?" he asked. "It's a ghost town, where is everyone?"

Fiona tilted her head to the side and smiled widely, so that her eyes were closed from it. "Dead!" she exclaimed happily.

"... Dead?" everyone surrounding her asked.

"Da!" she chirped. "Big seesters did not like being playtheengs. Bad men violate them, so they violate bad men!"

Everyone looked at eachother warily. Chris unconsciously flicked the selector switch on his XM-30 to _auto_.

"Do, uh, your sisters look like you?" he asked.

Fiona shook her head. "Big seesters change when hungry," she replied cryptically.

Suddenly, loud hyena-like shrieks of laughter were heard far off in the distance from the hallway. Soon, many more shrieks were heard and it sounded like a horrific symphony of inhuman cries.

"What the hell?" Allison cried, ducking behind Chris as she aimed her camera over his shoulder. "What is it?!"

"Aha!" Fiona giggled, turning away from Dante as she began to skip towards the hallway.

"Hey little girl, wait!" Sam yelled, but she sidled past him easily and went out into the hallway.

-----

"_Sor__ă!_" she cried happily as dark forms loomed around her. Several of the 7 foot tall beings minded the tiny young girl standing in the middle of the hallway, but soon ignored her as they followed the others to the door to the embryo room. More shrieks of bloodlust were heard.

"Oh?" Fiona said softly, turning around to watch the creatures force their way into the room. "Big seesters are ignoring me. Big brother will be ok but the others vill be hurt. I must stop big seesters..."

She turned in a daze, and began to walk back to the room.

-----

"You think she's okay?" Sara asked from behind their hastily made shield. Everyone was behind several toppled file cabinets and had their weapons trained at the door.

"Well she _did_ walk out into God knows what calmly and whatnot, so she probably knows what she's doing," Jack laughed nervously. "... Right?"

"She seems very sweet for a crime against nature," Allison commented as she trained her camera on the door. "I hope she's alright."

"_Something evil, comes this way,_" Dante said with a tinge of excitement. He gripped his sword tightly in his right hand.

The door exploded from its hinges and tall, dark forms flew into the room, positively pouring out of the doorway. Everyone who could opened fire as the dark creatures darted around the large room quickly. Soon, however, it came clear to the Special Forces that they were just too slow to hit whatever these things were and it showed from their lightning quick movements, almost as fast as Dante himself, who stood still, watching the proceedings. Still, the soldiers poured fire into the room, somewhat successfully keeping the monsters at bay.

The largest shadow suddenly pounced upon the group, a darkly veiled arm streaking towards Sara, long claws aimed at her face. Sara remained frozen in the spot, and the claws drew closer... and closer...

Suddenly, the claws dissapeared from her vision as a grey blur entered. Dante used his incredible strength to leap over Sara's head and smashed the tall figure back with the pommel of his sword. It shrieked angrily and landed on the ground on all fours, hissing furiously at the titan warrior, who stood in front of it.

All other movement stopped as the largest of both sides prowled around eachother, looking for a weakness. The multitudes of dark forms lined against the wall, almost as if they were eager to watch what would happen next, and completely ignored the humans off to the side.

Suddenly, the tall creature leapt at Dante with incredible speed and reached out to eviscerate him with its claws. It would prove pointless, as Dante merely corkscrewed into the air, dodging the attack by a mile and grabbing the thing's leg. As he landed, he twisted his body around, bringing his arm into a powerful throw as he launched the creature into the sky. Not pausing in his attack, Dante leapt up to meet the creature in mid air, and once again he avoided attack by slapping its arms away from him. Grabbing the creature by the scruff of its neck, he hurled it towards the floor, where it slammed into one of the cylinder containers, completely flattening it.

Dante landed nearby and powered his sword, the bright blue dual edged blade hissing and crackling as it extended out to its full length. In the blink of an eye, he dashed towards the crumpled figure on the ground and slashed down at it.

"NO!"

Dante's sword stopped mere milimeters from the creature's throat and the blade hovered there, humming softly with power. Gritting his teeth, he turned his eye to see Fiona standing in the middle of the room, wrenching her hands together in despair.

"No big brother, don't!" she cried, tears in her eyes.

"_I must kill this monster!_" Dante growled, the sword shaking in his hands. "_Don't interrupt!_"

Fiona shook her head hard, her ivory locks whipping about wildly. "No, don't hurt big seester!" she cried again, fat tear drops rolling down her cheeks.

"_Big sister?_" Dante asked, shocked. He turned back to the humanoid shadow, which began to get lighter, and shrink. Lifting his sword a foot away from its neck, Dante watched in wonder as the 8 foot shadow creature transformed into a beautiful woman of average height and long ivory hair. She looked like an older version of Fiona.

The woman stood up neatly, and brushed off her subject clothes, which looked tattered with age. "_Fiojna_," she said in a warning tone, her voice deep and sultry. "Do not interfere vith me and the outsider."

"But you can't fight him!" Fiona cried, stamping her foot.

"_Fiojna_," the woman said calmly, but dangerously. "Yoo are still a young von, and do not know the ways of your older seesters. You know that all outsiders vill be puneeshed."

"But it's big brother!" Fiona argued. "Yoo can't fight big brother!"

"Oh?" the older woman asked curiously, glancing at Dante's still form. "Is this true? Hmm?"

"Show big seester!" Fiona prodded Dante. He shrugged and opened his helmet, causing the older woman to gasp, and sink to her knees in a bow of forgiveness.

"B-brother!" she exclaimed, bowing down so that her face touched her hands, which were flat on the floor. "I - I did not know!"

Strange sucking noises caught the others' attention as the shadow creatures that surrounded them sucked the darkness into their bodies and transformed into many gorgeous woman of varying ages. They too, got down onto their hands and knees.

"What's going on here?" Chris asked in an annoyed tone as he clutched his rifle tightly. No one could give him an answer.

Fiona ran up to Dante and threaded her hand into his with a smile. "Ve have vaited so long for big brother to come!" she said excitedly, and the women all murmured in agreement. "Now ve can leave this place forever, Daciana!"

"_Fiojna_," Daciana placated softly, touching the younger girls' arm. "Ve older seesters are not like yoo. Ve cannot stand the sun, or slake our lust for blood."

"But, but..." Fiona's eyes got huge and watery. "Ve vaited for this day for so long!"

Daciana knelt down in front of Fiona and gather her into a big hug, though the girl still clutched Dante's hand tightly. "_Fiojna_," she whispered, her pale blue eyes shining with unshed tears. "Our little moon child. Vhen you vere born, the hearts of all the seesters burst vith joy. Yoo vere _different_. Ve knew you vould von day leave us behind. Big brother vill take good care of you, da?"

Fiona sniffled and both females looked up at Dante, who could only nod helplessly.

Daciana brushed Fiona's hair back tenderly and gently stroked her cheek. "If ve big seesters try to leave here, the sun will kill us all," she explained. "Ve don't haff the natural immunity that _Fiojna_ has in her body. Ve are trapped here."

"I.. I'm sorry," Dante said lamely.

Standing up, Daciana wiped her eyes and gave Fiona a pat on the head. "It is for the best," she declared. "Ve are killink machines, ve know that. But our little flower, _Fiojna_, has a chance to be happy. Ve seesters vould nevar take that avay from her. You vill make sure she leads a happy life big brother, da?"

"I swear it," he replied solumnly.

"Ah," Daciana said tearfully, placing a hand on his chest and stroking his cheek. "Ve haff vaited 30 years to see you big brother, and yoo haff to leave us too soon."

"We can stay a bit longer," Dante said with a frown. Daciana shook her head sadly.

"Vonce the sun goes down, ve cannot control ourselves," she said wistfully. "Ve are overcome vith bloodlust, ve kill and eat anything ve can find. If yoo stay, yoo vill either die or kill us all to save yourselves."

Dante put his hand to Daciana's cheek and stroked it lovingly, an act that shocked his companions to the core. "It's so unfair for us creations that it has to be like this," he said softly, cupping Daciana's cheek in his large hand. "How I wish you could be free, little sister."

Daciana smiled at him with watery eyes. "Ve are tortured souls brother," she whispered. "The bad men took our freedom, our lives and our purity. Ve vill alvays be tainted souls. But, ve have hope. Hope that lies in yoo brother."

She melted into Dante into a tight hug. "Yoo vill free us all, big brother," she breathed almost silently. "Nevar forget that yoo are not alone in this vorld, a part of you rests vith all us seesters, and a part of us, in you." She put a hand on his chest, where his heart beat powerfully. "Though ve have just met, know that ve love you very much brother."

Daciana kissed Dante lightly on the cheek, and stepped back as the hundreds of her sisters followed suit. Many gave him pecks on the cheeks, or hugs and all wished him well and good luck on his mission. When they were done, it was a slightly red eyed Dante that lifted Fiona up into his arms as he gave the 97 Sisters one last look, before sweeping away silently.

-----

"They're still alive sir," the deep voice said in disbelief. "Their vehicle is currently leaving the facility. What are our orders?"

"Damn!" the second voice cursed. "Sound the alarm! We will kill those fools!"

"Hello, bad man," a sultry voice purred from above in the shadows. The two military men froze dead in their seats, paralyzed in fear. The first man even gave birth to a new lump of joy in the seat of his pants. "Big brother left the front door open for us."

"N-no! NO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!"

All around the hidden forest complex, Gaia M. mercenary soldiers were mercilessly slaughter by Daciana and her sisters as they slaked their bloodlust in the night sky. From that day onward, the 97 Sisters would flourish in the abandoned Gaia M. facility and the newly inhabited military complex for the rest of their unnatural lives. They would then keep a large number of soldiers alive, so that they would produce fresh blood for the sister to feed on for many, many years to come.

"Ah, big sister," a younger 97 called as she walked forward, freshly spilt blood on her lips as she bared her elongated canines in a joyful smile. In her hands she clutched a mutilated body of a soldier, blood pouring from inummarable slashes from his body. "Do yoo think big brother vill come back to visit?"

Daciana looked at the moonlit night with no small amount of awe. "Look at the night sky sister," she breathed. "It is the first time I have evar seen it."

Ilinca gasped at the sight of the full moon and starry sky. "It is beautiful, sister," she gasped.

Daciana smiled beautifully. "If ve believe in him, brother will come back to us from a free vorld," she declared. "A vorld he vill free."

"_Da, sor__ă,_" Ilinca whispered, smiling widely. "He vill."

* * *

Translations:

"_Frate!_" - "Brother!"

"_Eu am chelner un timp îndelungat pentru tu!_" - "I have waited a long time for you!"

"_Sor__ă!_" - "Sisters!"

* * *

Revision 1 3/21/07 


	7. A Short Respite

This entire story actually owes its creation to an Ayumi Hamasaki song that I heard, called part of me. Yes, that's what the title is. The song is epic. Buy her CDs.

My muse wouldn't let me stop writing! This is the next chapter for today. No more since I'm on an epic quest to find the muse for Second Agent...

* * *

_A short respite_

"_Ooi, ne-chan,_" Fiona called lazily as she lay sprawled out on Sara's bed in the _Beramodo Agito_. "_Watashi wa taikutsu!_"

Sara smacked her palm against her forehead. "Fiona sweetie, I don't understand Japanese!" she moaned.

Since coming onto the _Agito_, Fiona had gone under some sibling bonding with Dante, who she had gleaned languages from his mind during their hourly telepathic sessions. She was currently torturing Sara while the men did... you know, manly stuff.

"I'm bored!" Fiona pouted, poking at Sara's combat boots.

"Is there nothing you can play with?" Sara asked hopefully.

"Big brother von't let me play with the big guns upstairs," Fiona whined childishly. Sara's face lagged in disbelief.

"You're not allowed to play with the canons!" she scolded. "You could seriously hurt someone, or call attention to us!"

"I know that," Fiona muttered from beneath her hair and arms as she burrowed her face into the bed. "_Baka..._"

"Hey, I know what that means!" Sara yelled, grabbing a pillow.

-----

"What are they up to?" Chris wondered as they heard girlish shrieks from upstairs. "See anything with those X-ray specs Angel-boy?"

Dante scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. "And if they're having one of those female sleepover slumber party pillow fights?" he asked pointedly. "They could very well be topless now."

Chris shook his head in dismay. "Women," he muttered. "I'll never understand them past their bodies, those minds are whack."

"ANYways," Jack said, giving both men a queer look, "I propose that we take the South Atlantic route, it'll allow us to bypass many Navy ships and also let us travel near countries that don't like America too well."

The men were currently plotting their next course of action in the war room, where they had several holomaps on display. They had thick booklets of intel and information spread out on the large mahogany table, and several bars of Mars Bars littered around the desks.

What, they needed their energy.

"I disagree," Sam objected, jabbing his finger onto the floating map and drawing a line to the Arctic. "Even if we could avoid the battleships, they could shoot us down easily with their Phoenicai cruise missiles from at least 5000 meters. I suggest we take the Arctic route. There are no military bases there that are equipped to take down a ship like this, and we have more than enough weapons to take anything that chases us down."

Jack nodded thoughtfully. "Ah, you've got a point there Splinter," he said.

Sam gritted his teeth and swatted Jack upside the head.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to refer me to that damn video game!" he growled.

"Yes, the Arctic route sounds much better," Dante interjected, stopping the fight with a roll of his eyes. "Captain?"

Chris nodded as well. "Sounds good to me as well," he said, rubbing his 5 o' clock shadow. "But first let's stop off in the UK, it's not too far."

"Sure, but why sir?"

"We need to stock up on supplies, fresh food and take a little breather," Chris explained. He turned to Dante. "Plus your little sister might appreciate some material distractions as well. We have good ties with the British government and military, and the plus is that they don't know about our current political situation as well."

"They'll know about me at the very least," Dante pointed out.

Chris shook his head. "Naw, our government made sure that all television broadcasts about your discovery were kept in country," he explained. "The Pentagon blocked all outgoing transmissions through any media that day."

Dante nodded in respect. "Well then, touche," he answered with a grin. "Are we going as civilians?"

"We'll have to," Chris said. "We can explain that we're a patrolling warship that would like to dock and enjoy the sights while we've got free time, the Brits won't deny us that. We'll be off-duty soldiers, so we're still allowed to carry a sidearm with us."

"Works for me!" Jack cheered, a large grin on his face. "I've never had English poon before, I wonder if it's any good?"

"Ugh, you dirty pervert," Sam muttered, slapping his comrade upside the head again. "Think with your gun, not your dick."

-----

"Well, you two sure had fun," Dante commented as he opened the door to see torn pillowcases and feathers strewn about. Sara and Fiona were sitting on the bed with big silly grins, and Sara was braiding Fiona's hair into a thick French braid. She smiled up at Dante.

"We had a girl's night in," she said cheerfully, finishing the braid. She tied a pretty white lace onto the end to keep it together and Fiona pranced off to the mirror to check out her new hairstyle.

Dante settled onto the bed and automatically gathered the petite woman into his arms. Sara let out a noise of content as the two sat there peacefully, watching the younger girl prattle on in mixed languages about how pretty her hair was.

"She's so precious," Sara said with a smile.

"She's a very good reminder of what we're fighting for," Dante agreed. "She and you, of course."

"_Nee-san!_" Fiona giggled as she nestled up to Dante's side, dropping off to sleep nearly instantly.

"She's got such a child-like innocence," Sara sighed as she stroked the girl's forehead as she slept. "It's so rare nowadays."

Dante nodded and they stayed quiet for a few minutes, listening to the girl's soft breathing as she slept.

"We're docking port in Britain," Dante announced quietly as he rubbed Fiona's shoulder, making her grin in her sleep.

Sara looked up. "I thought we were heading back home?" she asked in bewilderment.

Dante shook his head. "We'll do that later," he explained. "Captain says that we need to restock and have a little break. I have a suspicion that the ship's power core needs to be recharged as well. We've been flying around for over 4,000 miles so far."

"Ahh, our old employers sure aren't happy with us," Sara sighed, falling back onto the bed. "How many missiles do we have left?"

"684 Silhouette missiles, and 4 nukes," Dante replied. "All Hailstorm repeaters are still at full charge. We're lucky we've only run into fighter drones so far."

"It won't take long for those idiots to figure us out and send airships or even battleships," Sara said as Fiona snuggled up next to her. "Hey, Dante. How come she doesn't change like your other sisters?"

Dante smiled, thankfully, as he placed his hand on Fiona's back as she curled up to Sara. "She didn't contract what they called the 'Vampire Genosis Syndrome'," he explained. "That what all the little sisters have. Like Daciana said, Fiona is special."

"What does _ne-chan_ mean?" Sara asked suddenly.

Dante raised an eyebrow. "Several meanings, but the most common is older sister," he said. "She called you that?"

Sara smiled and wiped a tear from her eye. She gave the tiny girl a hug and Fiona squeaked happily in her sleep. "Yes."

"She must really like you," Dante remarked.

"I really like her," Sara said.

"Everyone likes her, even Allison, though she won't let go of the whole 'crime against nature' part."

"Well, she is bitchy."

"Heh, that she is."

"I'm trying to sleep!"

"Sorry sweetie!"

"Goodnight little sister."

"Night big brother, sister..."

-----

"Ah, it's been a while since I've seen the depressing grey skies of London!" Chris beamed as he stepped out onto the floating airship dock. He lit a Russian cigar and puffed away cheerily. "Hey Holmes, take good care of her, will ya?"

"Yes sir!" one of the British Air Force technicians saluted as he and his small team of mechanics boarded the _Agito_ for recharge and repairs.

"Gotta love this place," Sam commented as he looked over the platform to the skies below. The Heathrow International Airship Port was located a mile above London city, in a large, cylinder-like platform, with a huge round docking disc for ships. Many tourists called it the "Chopstick and Plate in the Sky" since that's what it strongly resembled. The stick-like cylinder housed the Port's 15 elevators was built where the old Heathrow International Airport had once been, before its upgrade to airship support. The dock itself was 4 miles in diameter, and could house airships in midair or on top while the base of the cylinder was over 2 miles in diameter, and the surrounding area was a huge subway/taxi/hotel area for travellers. There was a special section at the 6 o' clock section of the docking disc, where the _Beramode Agito_ was currently docked, securely clamped in midair with huge docking vices.

"Welcome to London Captain Topher and team," a delightful looking gate minder greeted as they walked up to their elevator. "We've detected no illegal items or substances on board your military craft. The British Commonwealth welcomes you to its homeland and if you have some time, I would like to explain some rules?"

"Go ahead," Chris waved.

"You are currently on off-duty military status in agreement with the UN treaty, however you, as officers, are permitted to carry sidearms, which I see you have."

Chris' squad was equipped with SOCOM .45 pistols and Dante was unarmed, for his stuff was in a pocket dimension, along with their bigger weapons. Since drawing his canon-sword would be a big bullseye on Bad Company, Dante opted to carry a katana he had ordered online and picked up. It was a mass production-made blade, but was traditionally forged so it would be good enough for the man. Dante felt somewhat lighter with the sword's overall length of 4 feet, but he would survive for now. The sword was kept in a pocket dimension that Dante carried the trigger for in his left glove.

"While you enjoy your stay here, I must request that you do not instigate any international incidents or attacks. As officers of your military, you have free reign over wherever you would like to stay or visit. Your expenses have been taken care of with your country's military credit, here you are."

The gate minder handed each person (minus Allison and Fiona) holo credit cards. They looked like normal credit cards, except that one side was transparent and holographic, showing an intricate encryption code, which was the security feature. The cards were US Military issued American Express cards with a $100,000 a day limit and $1,000,000 yearly limit, although they could only be used for a maximum of one month. It was paid for by the Gaia M. corporation, but the group figured they'd might as well make use of their enemy's funding.

"Now, we've arranged a limousine for you, and your hotel lodgings are at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel in Knightsbridge, like you requested. Is that all you need for now sir?"

Chris nodded. "Yes, thank you," he said, holding out his card. The gate minder held out a holo scanner. Chris swiped his card against the laser reader and said, "$50."

The gate minder bowed graciously and waved his hand to the elevator. "Thank your very much sir, now, your ride awaits."

They entered the huge gondola-like elevator and settled into the couches that were arranged in a circle shape, like the elevator itself. There were several holo TVs projecting shows and news in the air and a little fridge that held some beverages and snacks. Dante gave Fiona some fruit punch juice and a bag of chips before patting her on the head and sitting next to Sara.

"That was a generous tip," Sam commented.

Chris shrugged. "Might as well put Gaia's money to _good_ use," he retorted to laughter.

-----

An hour later, they finally descended to the ground and boarded the shuttle train that took them outside of the airport, to where a long white hover limo floated in wait.

"I guess we're travelling in style," Dante said with a shake of his head as they entered the luxurious transport.

"We're army apes," Chris grumbled as he sat down with a beer in his hand from the mini fridge. "If I can get me some comfort easy, then I'll get it."

"Wow, look at all the humans!" Fiona giggled excitedly. "They dress funny!"

"Call them people honey," Sara said nicely, hoping the limo driver hadn't heard. "We have to act normal, 'kay?"

"Okay," Fiona answered, still watching the outside world with wide eyes. "Can I get clothes like that?"

She pointed to a young girl who was wearing a plain, but pretty blue skirt that reached down to her ankles. She wore a simple long sleeved shirt with a light blue denim blazer on top, with a furry white collar. Sara winced when she realized that Fiona was still wearing her test subject clothing from the lab. She so desperately wanted to get Fiona new clothes, and burn the ones she wore now since they were a reminder of her captivity.

"Of course sweetie, in fact, let's go shopping for clothes right now!" she announced cheerfully, to Fiona's joy and the men's groans.

Two hours and probably Chris' pension's worth of money, half the limo was filled with bags from various designer clothing shops. Fiona was now dressed in a pretty knee length black denim skirt with matching black stockings and ballerina-style shoes. She wore a white blouse with a pink jacket that reached only down to her under her chest, but looked oddly nice with the whole setup. Oh, she also wore a training bra and some simple panties as well, but the men didn't need to know that. Of course, all the otaku readers out on FF do, of course. You guys make me sick.

... Anyways.

A hair salon had tidied up Fiona's hair, and trimmed it nicely, but she adamantly refused to have it cut any shorter than it already was. In the end, they trimmed off half a cm of uneven and dead ends and washed and styled it. The braid was let out, and her hair fanned around her back nicely, and a pink bow was tied behind her neck to keep it all managable above the shoulder. She had several butterfly hairclips to keep her bangs and fringe from getting into her eyes as well, and she looked quite pretty. She had some pink lip gloss on her lips and some mascara to emphasize her eyes and stand out from her pale face. She looked quite delicate.

Sara herself had gotten pampered as well, and her hair (which had gone about a year without proper washes) finally shimmered like it used to, although it was a good 2 feet shorter than her school days, resting above her shoulderblades. She had lightly dusted on some makeup as well, enough to look pretty but not garish. She was dressed in an elegant women's business suit for who knew what reason, but she looked good in the royal blue suit.

Dante was wearing one of his generic sleeveless cotton turtlenecks and black jeans, while the other men wore the All-American white t-shirt, blue jeans and Air Force One shoes. Of course, they looked odd with their pistols strapped to their thighs (minus Sara who had hers in a shoulder holster under her suit jacket) but they wore their military badges and medals so the people weren't too alarmed by their appearance.

While the women had gone to get pampered, the men had cruised around the tech shops looking for all the new releases. They each bought several cell phones like Dante's to keep in communication with eachother, and programmed the numbers into each phones. Jack had gone and bought a large stack of HVD (Holo Video Disc) and Blu-Ray DVDs for entertainment purposes (though he made sure to hide the porn from Sara and Fiona) and Dante finally got his PS4O and several games. Fortunetely, it had gone down in price the past 2 years and was only $550USD once converted from GBP.

After that, they pretty much bummed around the food court while the women continued with their pampering, and Dante was hit on by too much teenage girls as they munched on their Burger King.

_An example:_

"Wow, is your hair naturally white?" one girl asked in a posh, Oxford-style accent. She was currently running her fingers through Dante's long translucent hair as he ignored her as he drank his root beer. "It's sooo soft! And dreamy!"

"So you're American huh?" another girl asked as she squeezed Dante's arm. "Wow, your muscles are _huge_! And so hard! If I knew they made them like you, I would have moved there a long time ago!"

The girls giggled as Dante cleared his throat. "Sorry, one of a kind," he said shortly before turning back to his fries, eating with his eyes closed as he cursed the plague known as teenage hormones.

"We're in the Army," Jackson explained to one giggly college girl who was clinging onto his arm. He puffed his chest out and flexed his arm as the girl tittered with her friends. "Special Forces, ain't that right Cap?"

"That we are Jackson," Chris said as he leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. "Bad Company, the biggest, baddest muthas this side of the continent."

"Sounds dangerous!" one of the girls, a redhead gushed. All the men shared a knowing look.

"You have _no idea_," Dante said with a chuckle.

"What do we have here?" a feminine voice called from behind. Dante looked over his shoulder to see a very pretty Sara with a prettier Fiona (sorry, it's her synthetic genes, she can't help it) and the bitchy but still pretty Allison walk up to the group.

"You leave us for two hours and we've been tossed to the lions," Dante said in exasperation as the group of 5 or 6 girls around him giggled.

"Aww, I'm sorry snookums," Sara said in a disgustingly sappy voice as she pecked Dante on the cheek while all the teenagers groaned. Fiona peered curiously at the group of girls.

"Yoo don't look like seesters," she commented, poking a few of them with an odd look.

"Um, no, we're all friends," one of the girls explained with an eyebrow raised. "Who're you?"

"Big brothter's little sister!" Fiona chirped, latching onto Dante's arm as he mentally groaned.

"Oh, she's so _cute_!" one of the older girls squealed. "How old are you?"

"16."

"_No way!_"

"No one ever believes me," Fiona pouted.

_End freakishly disturbing example_

"Next time I'm stabbing one if they come near me," Dante grumbled.

Sara smacked his arm then turned around to mask the look of pain on her face as she rubbed her hand. "Dante!" she scolded shortly after. "Don't be so evil!"

"Can't help it," Dante grumbled as he leaned into the side of the limo, his face pressed against the window. "All that sitting around and clothes shopping has gotten me in a foul mood. I'll explode if I don't kill something or have some fun."

"Some fun eh?" Chris asked as he smoked his cigar. "I think I might have something up your alley."

-----

"Airbike racing?" Dante asked in a bored tone as they watched several sleek airbikes zoom around in the sky. It was nearing dusk and the gloomy London weather was clearing away to warm clear night skies. "I prefer my jets, thank you."

"Aw come on Angel-boy!" Chris whined, dragging the white haired man towards the admission gate. "It's either this or cause an international incident if you kill someone!"

"He's got you there," Sara added.

"You're not helping."

"Can I try?!"

"No flyers under 18."

"She can ride with me."

"Sara, again; not helping!"

"DIBS ON THE YELLOW BIKE!" Sam screamed, bolting towards said Honda with vengeance. Men, women and children scattered out of the crazed black man's way as he launched himself on the winged motorcycle.

Airbikes were a neat invention from the Japanese automarket. They incorporated toned down military hover jets and engines onto existing motorcycle frames with some changes and modifications. The rear section housed the engines and were surrounded by 180 degrees of short strake-like wings that helped steer the bike, which started horizontally all the way down to the bottom, with 5 or 6 strakes in total, depending on the bike. The front was a large air intake for the engine, and housed two strake wings on each side in an X for stabilization. The controls were fairly simple, with the handlebars similar to an airship's fork controls for steering. The pedals at each side controlled altitude. Hoeverbikes were pretty fun to drive around with, and easily affordable hover vehicles. They could take up to 2 passengers max.

Sara shook her head with a sigh as Sam gunned the engine on the Honda with a cackle. He was such a petrol-head, it was mind boggling. She paid her admission for the regular 5 laps and grabbed a pair of helmets for her and Fiona and then let the younger girl choose their ride of choice. Fiona picked a black Yamaha, which looked like it used to be an old YZF-R1. It had red accents and looked fairly wicked.

Chris selected a green (no doubt for its close resemblence to army colors) Honda like Sam's and Jack chose a blue Suzuki. Allison settled for a safe-looking older model Honda and Dante settled onto a blazing red Kawasaki and everyone patiently waited for a few more people to join in.

As soon as the lights turned green, Sam was out of the group like a gunshot, screaming wildly as he floored his bike to its limit, practically halway through the 2 mile track as the others crossed the starting line. Fiona was whooping happily as Sara took her quickly, but safely around the course, ignoring the speed junkies coughSamcough. Chris, Jack and Dante were currently having their own little race against eachother and were shouting out bets against eachother. Allison was cruising behind Sara calmly, filming their little expedition with her camera.

After many, many more laps later (surprisingly, it wasn't Fiona who wanted to stay longer, but Sam) they finally gave it up and headed back to their limo, which was patiently waiting for them. It turned out that the driver was in fact a droid computer that drove the limo to voice commands.

-----

"Hey Angel-boy, what say you to some drinking?" Chris asked, poking his head into Dante's suite. The hotel they had booked into was ridiculously fancy, and they were spared no minor luxury. Dante and Fiona were currently sharing a room since the younger girl vehemently refused to sleep anywhere else but with her big brother. He, Fiona and Sara would most likely end up sharing the king sized bed, but at least this time they would all fit nicely unlike Sara's single on the airship.

Dante looked up from unpacking his clothes from the PD. "No thanks," he said. "I don't like leaving Fiona alone."

"Aw come on D.A.," Chris tried to persuade. "D.A." was another nickname for Dante, it stood for Death Angel. "She's got Sara! You know your girlfriend wouldn't let anything happen to her! Hell, no one here would let anything happen to that sweet lil girl!"

"No thanks," Dante said again. "Alcohol doesn't agree with my body anyways."

Chris blinked. "Oh, well that sucks then," he said. "Oh well, maybe next time then, after the war." He flashed Dante a white smile. "Jack said he's found a nice titty bar on the net, so we're checking it out."

"Old perverted men," Dante's voice trailed out from the bathroom.

"I'll have you know I'm only 36! Jack's 26 and Sam's 28!"

"Young perverted men then."

"_Thank_ you!"

"Just bring your phones in case there's trouble."

Chris scratched his head. "It's a titty bar," he stated bluntly.

"This is London 2017, the Black Mafia owns almost all smutty bars."

"We've got our guns, don't worry about it," Chris grinned. "But we'll carry our phones as well. How fast could you get around the city?"

"2 minutes. 3.75 tops."

-----

"How old are these girls again?" Chris asked as a rather nubile blond (although he could _clearly _see it wasn't natural) grinded a pole in front of his face. Jack and Sam could only shrug as their beers lay forgotten on their table. "I mean... they don't even jiggle! You know lack of jiggles only means teenagers."

"My girls are all 18 years of age, or older," a rich voice said behind them. They turned around to see a distinguished Englishman wearing a black tuxedo sit down with them. He had an expensive tux, haircut and moustache/goatee trim.

"Good evening gentlemen, I am Nigel Bailey, the propriator of this establishment," he greeted, shaking each man's hand. "Forgive my brashness, but are you policemen?"

Chris and his men burst out into raucous laughter. "Fuck no man, parden meh language," Chris chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. He gave an informal salute to Nigel. "US Special Forces."

Nigel's face brightened. "Ah, splendid!" he said, clapping his hands. "Enjoy your drinks gentlemen, the next round is on the house. Trixie, entertain these fine servicemen."

The 18 year old (for 3 hours) stripper slid off the stage and joined the men at the table as she chatted them up pleasantly. Jack eventually weaseled a nice lap dance out of her, and they all enjoyed a nice night, or so far.

-----

Dante heard the familiar tone of Sephiroth's song come from the nightstand. Muttering quietly, he expertly removed himself from the tangle of limbs that were Sara and Fiona as he reached for his phone. Pressing it open, he was greeted with the face of the captain.

"Trouble?" he grumbled.

"Yeah," Chris said loudly over what sounded like a bar fight.

"I'll be there soon."

"Mmm, what's up?" Sara asked sleepily, sitting up.

Dante got out of the bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead, one that she relished in its tenderness. "Think about it," he said nonchalently. "Your men, in a bar, drunk with strippers and lowlifes."

She sighed in exasperation. "Go save their asses," she groaned.

"I will," Dante said, checking to make sure his pocket dimension was active. He leaned over and pressed a kiss on Fiona's forehead. "You look after her."

Sara nodded. "With my life," she answered, begging another kiss from Dante. "Good luck, not that you need it."

"Saying it sometimes helps," Dante said just before he jumped out of the window.

Fiona made a soft noise as she awoke from the noise of Dante's descent. "Big brother?" she yawned, rubbing her eyes cutely with the back of her hands.

Sara shushed her and drew the blanket back over the pair. "He's gone to help our idiot soldier boys," she said soothingly. "He'll be back soon."

Fiona yawned again and shut her eyes drowsily. "I can see him," she murmured as she dozed off.

-----

"BRING IT ON BITCHES!" a severely intoxicated Sam roared as he swung a bar stool in each hand around him, forcing several of his attackers to the ground. "I'LL GIVE YA'LL A WHOOPIN' BAD COMPANY STYLE!"

_10 minutes earlier..._

"Excuse me," a snobby voice said, breaking Trixie from Jack's lapdance. "But that is our regular dancer."

"That's great, you can chat with her later if she wants to," Sam said dissmissively, throwing some chips onto the table as he and Jack played Texas Hold'em.

The snooty Brit scoffed. "I'm afraid you don't understand, she belongs to us," he said silkily.

"Hey man, we're trying to have a good time here, so why don't you piss off you pipe cleaner?" Sam groused as he lost another $40 to Jack.

"Trixie, get over here!" the man commanded. Trixie stopped her flirting with Jack and sullenly made her way over to the dark haired snob.

"Hey man, what the fuck?" Sam snapped, standing up abruptly and causing everyone in the bar to look their way. "What's with the killjoy? You can't wait five fucking minutes you fucking stiff?"

The man and the 10 men around him laughed coldly. "Do you know who I am, boy?"

"Boy?" Sam repeated dangerously. "BOY!? And what do you mean by that?"

"You're over reacting," the man sniffed. "You should learn your place here, this is my playground."

"THAT'S IT!" Sam bellowed, punching the man nearest to him and throwing him onto the stage, and causing the man's flying body to wrap around a pole as the girl who previously occupied it screamed.

As Sam went on his rampage, Jack and Chris sighed into their smokes and beer. Jack tossed his hand onto the table - Queens, Nine - and shrugged at his captain.

"Never a dull moment sir," he said, gettin up off his chair. One of the men stumbled his way and Jack casually smashed his chair onto the man's head, shattering the wood and dropping him to the ground. "COME GET SOME MOTHERFUCKERS!" he screamed before pile-driving the man.

Chris sighed again as he withdrew his holophone. He voice called Dante's phone just as Sam started waving bar stools around and the men started drawing pistols.

"_Trouble?_" Dante asked.

"Yeah," Chris replied loudly, covering his ear so he could hear the white haired demon.

"_I'll be there soon,_" was all Dante said before he hung up. Chris chuckled to himself as he raised from his seat and drew his SOCOM. A sharp crack to one man's face knocked him out for the count and he trained his gun on the leader's head as six guns were pointed at his. Sam threw his stools away and added his gun to the mix, as did Jack, who was sitting on top of one unconscious man at the moment.

"Seems we have a mighty big misunderstandin," Chris said loudly, reverting back to his old Texan accent. "Now we all jus came here for some drinks and a good evenin, and ya'll seem to be startin something fierce. As an American soldier in allied land, I'm s'posed to be react to this here situation as a diplomat."

Chris cocked the hammer on his USP and the many clicks followed it. "Now, do I have to get diplomatic on ya'll asses or we gonna keep the peace?" he asked.

-----

"I leave you alone for 4 hours and you find yourselves in trouble," Dante grumbled as he made his way through the parting crowd, long blue katana at his side. He stopped in front of one of the British gunmen. "Explain yourselves."

Chris could clearly see that he had put the man into a bad mood, and reminded himself that Dante was a man who could obliterate this entire area if need be. "Just a disagreement Angel-boy," he explained.

"'Ere now, you insulted the boss!" the gunman behind Dante shouted. He raised his gun to aim at Dante's head. "And you lot 'ave got to pay for that!"

Dante didn't even flinch. "Put that toy away or I will kill you."

The man laughed wildly. "'Ere that?" he asked his fellow gunmen. "'Ere _that_? 'E's gonna kill me 'e said! Wiv a sword! I've got a gun dumbass!"

The man cocked the hammer back and trained the gun dead center at the back of Dante's head.

"I won't warn you... a second time."

"Piss off!"

The man went to squeeze the trigger when Dante's right arm became a blur. In a flash, he unsheathed the sword, and twirled it rapidly behind him several times, going up and down the man's height, making very loud whistles from the sword's blade. He finally twirled it one last time with his thum, and inserted the tip into the man's stomach. He swiftly pulled it back out, and twirled it once in his palm before sliding the blade back into the scabbard in a reverse grip. He paused at the last three inches and waited a moment. A second later, he snapped the rest of the blade in with a loud _ching_ and the man fell apart into several pieces.

"You killed Ernie! You bastard!" another man shouted, pointing his gun at Dante. Dante pressed his thumb against the handguard and extended it powerfully just as the man shot. The sword shot out of the scabbard and deflected the oncoming bullet, sending the sword twirling towards Dante, who caught it in a reverse grip. As the man gawked at him, Dante shot forward in the blink of an eye, pivoting on his left foot as he spun around, cleaving the man clean in half. Not stopping, Dante travelled around the group of gunmen, cutting them into pieces within seconds.

He finally stopped at the other side of the room, his back facing the awed group as he stood there. With a flick, he flung the blood cleanly off the blade of his sword and twirled it once before reaching over his shoulder and sheathing the sword alongside his spine, where he held the scabbard behind him. He closed it again with a loud _ching_ and turned around to face the leader of the group.

"You're Black Mafia," Dante said quietly, walking towards the man, who was 20 feet away.

"Get away from me!" the man screamed, firing once at Dante. Dante unsheathed his sword upwards, before thrusting down in front of him. Two halves of the bullet impact the wall behind him. "You - you aren't human..."

The man fired again and again but Dante either deflected the shots or cut them in half. Finally, he was mere steps away from the man and with a flick of his wrist, he sliced the man's .45 in half and slapped it out of his hands.

Before the man could react, Dante spun the sword in his right hand so that the edge faced upwards and thrust it into the man's stomach. The man's eyes widened in pain as he gurgled blood.

"Yes, I can smell the stench of blood and gunpowder on you," Dante hissed, driving the sword in an inch deeper, making the man trail blood down his jaw. "How old is that girl?" he asked, nodding his head to Trixie. "She can't be a day older than 18. How long has she been working here?"

When the man didn't answer, Dante spun the blade edge to face down, shredding the man's innards in the process, making him moan in pain. He thrust the sword all the way to the hilt in the man's stomach, making him throw up blood.

"She turned 18 today!" he screamed. "Fuck, she's 18 today! She's been working here for 2 years!"

Dante sneered. "You disgust me, ganster filth," he said smoothly. Turning around to face the other way, Dante yanked the sword out of the man, causing a spray of blood to erupt from his stomach. The man gurgled, moaned and cried for a few minutes before lying still on the ground.

Dante turned to the stripper, Trixie. "Leave this place, and get a better life," he ordered her. She nodded fearfully and edged away from him, towards Jack.

The Black Mafia leader apparently wasn't dead. He drew a derringer from his ankle and aimed it at Dante's back, who was several feet away. "Die your freak bastard!"

Before Chris could shoot the man, Dante had turned around, dashed backwards and impaled the man through his forehead with his sword, killing him for good.

"Not before you," Dante whispered, sliding the crimson stained blade out of the man's head. He flicked it to his side, removing the blood before spinning the sword in a figure 8 towards the scabbard, so that the sharp edge now faced upwards so he could sheath it.

Chris chuckled as he walked up to Dante, his SOCOM resting on his shoulders. "You sure had my butthole tight, I tell you what," he said, slapping Dante on the shoulder good naturedly. "You sure are something Angel-boy. Or maybe it's Devil-boy?"

"You know, I did tell you that this was probably a Black Mafia bar," Dante said over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know that now," Chris said sheepishly.

The resounding echoes of clicks from safeties filled the room. Dante grinned evilly, grasping the hilt of his katana in eager anticipation, taking a wide stance on the floor. He looked around to see pistols, shotguns and SMGs being cocked by customers, the barkeep and strippers.

"Hey, girl," he called over his shoulder. "You should duck."

-----

It was nearly 6 in the morning when the group dragged themselves back to the hotel, heavy one extra. Dante himself was completely coated in blood, while the others weren't much better off, having a few gunshot wounds themselves. The Black Mafia titty bar had been completely decimated with lead and the only survivors were the ones in the elevator heading up to the VIP suites.

"Hey, Devil-boy," Chris said wistfully.

"Captain?"

"I'll fight by your side any day."

Dante grinned, clutching his bloodied sword loosely. "You too."

Sam groaned as he pressed the bar towel to his shoulder. He had been the first one shot. "What do we do with the girl?" he griped, jerking his head towards the unconscious Trixie in Jack's arms. Jack was sporting a nice tunnel in his left thigh and was missing a chunk from his right arm thanks to a ricochet.

Trixie had been caught in the crossfire, she hadn't ducked quickly enough to avoid getting shot in the shoulder, and had dropped instantly. Jack had dragged her behind a table and provided cover for her, but he had taken hits as well.

"Well, we'll get Sara to fix her up and then might as well send her on her way," Chris said. "We can withdraw cash from our cards to get her out of this shithole."

Dante cracked an eye open. "I thought you liked London?"

"Fuck London."

-----

"You... IDIOTS!" Sara exploded for the fifth time as she treated her squad's wounds. Despite their whining, she had patched the young dancer first and left them to suffer for another half hour. "I can't believe you would start shit with the MAFIA! Hello?! You might as well wave a fucking ten foot flag that says, 'HEY GAIA, WE'RE OVER HERE!' you IDIOTS!"

Fiona peeked out from Dante's room as she hid behind the door, forbidden to come in. Dante had changed out of his bloodstained clothes and into fresh ones, since he hadn't even been scratched in combat. He was currently snoozing on the couch, though an occassional snicker could be heard from his direction as Sara tore into her men.

"I agree," Allison said primly as she wrinkled her nose at Sam. She was tying his bandage around his shoulder and chest. "You guys at Grade-A cut, dumbshits."

"That little bastard got into my face," Sam sulked, wincing as Allison overtightened his bandage on purpose.

"Never again!" Sara declared. "How are we supposed to save the worlds if you idiots get into a fight at every bar you go to?! This better not show up on the news!"

"Don't worry," Dante called from his chair. "It looks like a gang war in there. Bullet holes all round. They'll think it was just an inter-gang dispute."

Sara rounded back on Chris. "And _YOU_!" she fumed, jabbing her finger at Chris, who was thinking it was a sword at the moment, "bring Dante into this! If anyone survived and reported about him, then we're done! Next time, fix your own damn problems without falling back on his super powers!"

"I'm so touched," Dante drawled as he reclined the La-Z-Boy.

"Oww, my shoulder," the stripper moaned as she came back into consciousness. Sara hurried over to her, ignoring Chris' moan from lack of finishing his dressing.

"Open your eyes," she said soothingly, pulling out a pocket light. "Follow the light. That's good. How many fingers am I holding up."

"Two and a thumb?" the girl answered groggily.

Sara grinned. "Sharp one you found Jack, I'm surprised," she complimented. Jack shrugged. "Isn't she a bit young for you?"

"They're always too young for me _mom_," Jack muttered sarcastically as he pressed the ice pack to his black eye. "Dammit, I'm not a pedophile you know."

"Damn close," Sam muttered.

"Where am I?" Trixie suddenly asked, looking around wildly. "What happened?"

"Bar fight," Jack called lazily. "You got shot."

Trixie lay back down as she remembered. "That's right," she murmured. "That scary man with the sword..."

"Am I really that scary?" Dante wondered.

"You cut 10 people into bite-sized pieces 2 hours ago, what the hell kind of question is that?" Chris asked dubiously.

Dante shrugged. "Just making sure I've still got it," he droned. Fiona couldn't stay out any longer and she padded into the living room and curled onto Dante lap.

"Are yoo okay big brother?" she asked worriedly. "I saw the fight at the dirty place..."

"You what?" Dante asked, roused from his snooze. "Oh yeah... that... I wish you didn't see it..."

Fiona smiled cheerily. "I've seen big seesters do worse," she chirped. She snuggled into Dante's chest and turned her wide violet eyes on Trixie.

"She is scared," Fiona declared in a sad voice. "She has novhere to go and he family. Her mother vas violated by her father. Her father killed her mother. She vas sent to a snuff film man who made her do dirty things vith other children. Her father sold her to the bad men to dance. Big brother killed her father tonight. She vants to run avay. She doesn't know how I am doing this. She -"

"STOP IT, JUST STOP IT!" Trixie shrieked, covering her ears with her hands. "Make her stop," she sobbed, burying her face into Sara's shoulder.

Dante pressed a hand onto Fiona's back and the young girl quieted. "I'm sorry, she can't really control herself," he said to Trixie.

"It's true," Trixie sniffled from Sara's shoulder. "I - I _don't_ have anywhere to go."

"We can give you money, lots of it," Jack said quickly. "You can move away, go anywhere you want, go to school and get a good job."

In a small voice, Trixie asked, "Can't I go with you?"

Everyone glanced at eachother several times. Finally, they all looked towards Dante, who was still sprawled out on the chair with Fiona. He met their eyes and groaned inwardly.

"Trixie," he called. "What do you know about the American Gaia M. companies?"

* * *

Should Trixie join Bad Company???

Should they send Trixie off somewhere???

Is Dante getting more human???

Will Jack **_EVER_** get his poon?!?

Vote, for the next chapter of Part of Me!!!


	8. Unexpected Family Reunion

Warning: Chapter is rated NC-17 for mentions of sexual violence and rape, though none will occur and it's not graphic. You have been warned!

Again, I still gots the muse. Maybe one more chapter after this, if you're lucky and my muse doesn't run out :P

Bad Company will travel all over the world, fighting Gaia and picking up strays with unique stories. Trixie won't be the first. As each new character is introduced, they'll have 1 or 2 chapters dedicated to their past and when their sad past is finally put to rest, the words "Introduction: Complete" will appear at the end of the chapter.

* * *

_Unexpected Family Reunion_

Dante supposed that if he could use just _one_ way to make a person's eyes nearly _literally_ pop out of their heads, explaining the Gaia M. conspiracy would probably do the job, since it was working quite nicely on Trixie. The girl's eyes had been getting rounder and rounder till the point where Dante thought they would just reverse their natural order and turn into ovals vertically.

The girl in question was sitting on the couch, with some spare clothes lent to her by Allison hanging off her lithe frame. She had taken to the news of Gaia M. quite easily actually, since the UK was second in line for any big international news. London already knew about most of the American Gaia crisis, and had offered to lend military support, not that the Yanks needed it. Still, having to actually hear the ultimate throw down about Gaia from one of its creations was unnerving.

"So..." Trixie trailed off. "So... you're a robot?"

Dante's head fell into his hands. "No!" he exclaimed for the seventh time. "More like a modified human or cyborg maybe, but more human."

Trixie, having apparently gotten over her fear of Dante, got up and started to prod and poke at him. "You don't feel like a robot," she commented as she poked around his torso. "You don't look like one either."

"Hey!" Dante protested.

"Just wait till you see him in his suit," Jack snickered from across the room. "Then you'll understand."

"Ooi, Jackson, want me to give you a new ass hole?" Dante barked, causing the soldier to snicker even more.

Dante gently grabbed Trixie's arms and forced her to sit down in front of him. "Now, having heard our story, and all the dangers that come with it," Dante said, "And the extremely highly possible chance that you will most likely be _killed_ if you come with us... you still... want to come with us?"

He scratched his head. Ever since he had been set loose, he seemed to be getting mose bits of his old self pop up every once in a while. It was annoying.

Trixie nodded vehemently. "Yes!" she said. "I'm safer with you guys than anywhere else, trust me!"

Dante furrowed his brow in thought and sat back with his chin on his finger in a classic thought pose. "What's your real name?" he asked.

Trixie frowned. "It's really Trixie," she said. "Honest! Most people think it's my stage name, but well, I was born into that business and they wanted an exotic name for me so..."

She trailed off sadly and Dante returned into deep thought.

Several tense, quiet moments later he looked up at her.

"I just have one more question for you, and for your sake you'd better have the right answer," he growled.

Trixie gulped and nodded fearfully.

"... Can you cook?"

She blinked several times at him. Dante just stared back at her with a completely serious look. She blinked once more and her jaw unhinged slightly.

"... Yes?"

Dante stood up abruptly and headed off to the shower. "Welcome aboard Cookie," he called over his shoulder as he grabbed a towel.

Trixie sat on the floor, watching Dante's dissapearing form in disbelief. "He wasn't serious was he?" she gaped.

Chris shrugged his massive shoulders. "I wouldn't think so. All of our cooking tastes like shit. Anything you can make, we'd eat it, or we'd be living off of TV dinners still."

Trixie rolled her head around. "Cookie?"

"Ey, it suits you," Jack smiled from the loveseat. He was playing with the safety on his SOCOM. "It's a cuter name than Trixie. Less... pole baggage with it if y'know what I mean."

Trixie shrugged. "You guys are so confusing."

-----

_Beep. Beep._

"Oy? What's that?" Jack groaned as he unwound his arm from around Trixie. The suite's main door was buzzing. "Hey, did anyone call for room service?"

A chorus of no's followed by "Vhat's room service?" from Fiona answered him. Giving a look to his captain, Jack drew his SOCOM and placed it behind his back. Sam ushered the women into the furthest back room and locked the door before standing in front of it protectively. Chris lay splayed out on the couch, his head above the backrest but the back blocking the view of him and the 10 gauge over-under double barreled shotgun that lay next to him. Unfortunetely, Dante was still in the shower.

Jack went to the door and peered out the peep hole, but it was covered. Giving a serious look to Chris, he reached for the knob and opened the door slowly, his pistol behind his back.

Standing in front of him was Nigel Bailey, the titty bar owner.

"Morning, gentlemen," he greeted genially.

"Can we help you?" Jack asked, while inwardly thinking, _how'd he find us?!_

Nigel looked around Jack's frame into the room, observing it in an uninterested manner, but the trained SF soldier could tell the older man was scoping the place out.

"Imagine my surprise when I come back to visit my bar and find it in total destruction," he said in an oily voice. "Now I know my regular patrons wouldn't _ever_ do that to me, and you gentlemen were the only newcomers this night so that leads me to believe that you had something to do with it."

"Perhaps," Jack said in a bored voice. "What's it to you Heff?"

Footsteps were heard and Nigel was surrounded by at least 50 men who were heavily armed. "I demand... retribution."

Chris' eyes widened as everything slowed down. He was raising the shotgun as Jack dove to the right from the door, pointing his SOCOM towards the armed goons. Automatic fire from their M249 chain guns ripped into the room, missing him by inches. Chris was protectively behind the couch as he unleashed twin cartridges of buckshot towards the door, and splattered guts of 4 men into their buddies. Racking the pump back, Chris dove from the couch as more automatic fire poured into it, turning the expensive Connelly leather couch into swish cheese.

Jack was rolling away from the door on the ground, firing blindly at their attackers as they rushed into the suite, firing everywhere. Chris fired again and managed to down a couple of them, but soon the entire room was filled with them. Thanking God that the girls were safe in the back bedroom several rooms away, he leapt over to a nearby wall, dodging enemy fire as he took cover next to Jack, who pressed a new clip into his pistol.

"Mighty fine past couple of days we've had eh Jackson?" he yelled over the heavy gunfire.

"You know I like it rough sir!" Jack yelled, twisting his arm around the corner and firing wildly. A few cries of pain made him grin.

Suddenly, the automatic fire stopped and they held their breath.

"Gentlemen, I must ask of you to simply give up," Nigel's voice called over the silence. "You simply can't win against me."

"Hey Nige, buddy, how bout I coat the tip of my dick with whipped cream and have you suck my knob you stiff fuck?" Chris yelled back.

He cringed away from the explosion of fire that peppered the sculpted wall he was behind.

"No one will save you now," Nigel hissed coldly.

-----

"I might," Dante said casually as he walked out of the shower, currently in his black jeans and topless. He sniffed the air. "Ugh, you stink like blood and gunpowder." He raised his ion canon and fired point blank into the middle of the gunmen crowd, narrowly missing Bailey as the man dived out of the way. Dante's massive ion beam vaporized the entire middle's worth of gunmen, killed at least half of them instantly. It also left a gaping hole that showed the outside world at the other side of the hotel.

"What the bloody hell, an ion canon?!" Nigel screamed from behind a wall. Dante fired again into the remaining gunmen, who were too stupid to do anything but die instantly as they were engulfed by blue light. "No man can fire an ion canon, let alone carry one!"

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, old man," Dante said cheerfully as he switched to sword mode. He walked over to where Nigel was hiding, and leaned out of the way from the man's gunfire from his revolver. "Quit being a tease."

Dante sliced into the wall, carving a semicircle from the ground up where Nigel was hiding behind. The old man couldn't do anything but freeze in terror as the blue beamsword moved around him, singing the top of his hair as Dante cut away at the plaster, wood and steel like butter.

"Now, care to explain why you're HERE?!" Dante yelled the last word, kicking the cut section of the wall hard, sending it - and Nigel - crashing to the opposite wall in a crumple.

"Erk - ugh, freak!" Nigel shouted, firing his Colt Python and nailing Dante in the forehead. The impact of the .357mag round made Dante's head snap back in a flash, and he fell backwards onto the ground.

"BIG BROTHER!"

"Fiona, no!"

Fiona burst into the room, followed by Sara, Trixie, Allison and Sam. All were wielding weapons. Nigel raised his Python at Fiona, who stopped running instantly and Chris and Jack burst from their hiding spot, aiming their guns at Nigel, as did Sam and Sara. Allison stood in front of Trixie, the large SOCOM in her hands shaking.

"Looks like we have a Mexican stand-off," Nigel laughed cruelly. "What will happen now?"

A _whooshing_ noise was heard and Nigel looked just in time to see Dante's bastard sword spin in the air at him, cleaving him in the knees and sending him falling backwards as he shrieked in pain from his severed and smoking limbs while sitting on his ass.

"Holy shit!" Chris whispered.

Dante had gotten back up. The topless man's muscled torso rippled with power as each muscle flexed from his movements. The older women unknowingly licked their lips at the sight.

Dante stood up fully and stretched his limbs, then cracked his neck on both sides before opening his eyes. They all saw the bullet that supposedly kill him get pushed out of his forehead as the flesh that was damaged regenerated itself. Dante gave an annoyed grunt as he wiped away the blood that trailed down his forehead to the bridge of his nose. The bullet made a _whumph_ noise as it hit the carpet.

"Okay, what the hell old man?" he snapped, walking over to Nigel, who lay on the floor whimpering in pain, his revolver long forgotten. His whimpers increased when he saw Dante, alive and well. Well, maybe not emotionally.

Dante grabbed him by the collar and lifted him high into the air. "I show you some mercy by not killing your sorry ass right away and give you the chance to explain yourself and you show your appreciation by shooting me? Seriously, I get so disoriented and queasy from headshots, so I tend to avoid them but you seriously pissed me off asshat!"

Dante tossed Nigel to the ground several feet away, and the old man slid up to the wall he was well-aquainted with again. Dante's sword-canon dissapeared in a flash of white shatters and reappeared in his hand. He shut off its power and sat down on the swiss cheese couch, legs propped up on the backrest.

"Now, you mind explaining why you barge into my fucking place and shoot the shit up?" Dante growled.

"I - I came for the girl," Nigel explained weakly, pointing at Trixie, who hid behind Allison. "And to get revenge on your Army friends."

"I can understand revenge, we shot your shit up, but the girl?" Dante asked, tossing his device into the air, letting it spin twice before catching it. "But what about Trixie?"

"S-She's my gr-granddaughter!" Nigel spluttered, grasping his stumps of legs. "She belongs to me!"

_BAM!_

A .45 round impacted the ground right in front of Nigel's crotch as Jack yelled, "The fuck she does wanker!"

"Jack." Dante looked up, his green eyes glowing. "Please. This is my show."

Jack's heart stilled at the demonic look Dante gave him. The Death Angel was severely pissed. Of course, he would be too if he had gotten shot in the head and woke up afterwards. He gulped and nodded.

"So, you're the father of the man who sold his own daughter to a life of slavery and debauchery," Dante drawled, tossing his weapon up again. "You're a sick fuck."

"The bad man helped killed Trixie's mommy," Fiona whispered softly as she clutched Sara's hand. "The bad man hurt Trixie when she was a very little girl. The bad did bad things to Trixie's behind..."

Something akin to a sonic boom shook the room and made everyone's ears pop. Dante had gone from the couch to strangling Nigel with one hand against the wall, 7 feet up. The drywall and plaster had a crater in it from Nigel's body. "You..." he growled in a gutteral voice as he choked the old man slowly to death. Several cracks and pops were heard. He gnashed his teeth as his eyes glowed brightly, scaring the living piss out of Nigel, who was very close to either suffocating to death or having a heart attack.

Dante suddenly let go of Nigel, who collapsed onto the floor hacking and wheezing. Walking briskly back, Dante picked up Nigel's Colt Python 6 inch and walked over to Trixie. He looked hard and long at the girl, who had tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Her eyes betrayed her emotions, and Dante could clearly see the angst, pain and brokenheartedness in her eyes. But wait... there was something else. Yes, he could see it... An underlying fury, one that was sparking within those blue orbs, threatening to break wild and ignite a firestorm...

Looking at the gleaming chrome revolver in his hand, Dante dropped it into Trixie's hands. "There are 2 rounds left in it," he told Trixie coldly. "This is your family matter. Everyone else... leave them."

He stalked out of the room, and the others slowly followed, leaving Trixie and her grandfather alone in the destroyed living room. She looked at the killing tool in her hands and then to her grandfather.

"Tr-Tr-Trixie!" Nigel tried to smile. "You wouldn't... _kill_ your grandfather would you? Your own blood?"

"You and that rat bastard father of mine killed my mother!" Trixie yelled, gripping the gun tightly in both hands as she raised it. "You took away my childhood! You forced me to pleasure men 4 times my age! You raped me, you sodomised me and put me up on display at your sick fucking strip bars when I was 16! You ruined my life!"

"I let you have your life!" Nigel shouted, his face red with anger. "If it were up to my idiot son, you would have been strangled with your bloody umbilical cord the moment you were born! I made a deal with James, it was either you or your mother, and you owe me your LIFE you little shit!"

"SHUT UP!" Trixie screamed, pointing the gun at the old man. "JUST SHUT UP OLD MAN!"

"I enjoyed every second of it!" Nigel roared, crawling on his stomach towards his granddaughter. "Bolloxing you up your tight 10 year old arse was splendid the first time, and the dozens of times after that! Hah! You always could make an old man's bits rise up in an instant my dear! It's all you're good for! You were born for it! You have no other purpose other than to be fucked like the little slut you are Trixie Bailey!"

Trixie's bangs covered her face as the shining barrel of the revolver pointed down to Nigel's mouth. "My name... is Cookie. Old man. And you'll be eating your own bullets."

Nigel stopped at Trixie's feet and gripped her leg. "No, wait...!"

----

_**BLAM! BLAM!**_

Jack flinched harshly as the shots went off. Dante gave everyone the _eye_ to make sure no one left the room. Trixie would come in when she was ready.

Nearly half an hour passed when she finally came in. Her eyes were rimmed red, and her whole face was wet with tears. In her right hand she clutched the chrome Python loosely and she looked like a wreck. Sara and girls immediately ran towards her and enveloped the young girl with hugs. Jack couldn't restrain himself and added himself to the mix.

Dante nodded towards the young girl. "Okay, Trixie?" he asked.

She sniffled her nose loudly and gave him a shaky smile and nod. "Cookie," she answered.

Dante raised his eyebrow. "Cookie?" he repeated.

"Call me Cookie," she smiled brightly this time, and Dante could see the raging inferno within her sky blue eyes, contained, but always there from now on. She raised the gun. "Can I keep this?"

"It's your decision," Dante said wisely. "But why keep a memory of your past?"

Cookie held the revolver in her hands, as if it were a precious jewel. "From now on, this weapon of my old family will be used for good," she whispered. "It will remind me that while I have a new future, that I should remember the past and... be better than who I used to be."

Dante nodded again. "Wise words, for one so young, Cookie," he said. "I"m sure Jack can teach you how to properly use it."

Jack beamed at her comfortingly and drew her into a one-armed hug. "That's right Cookie, you make the food, I'll make you a shooter!" he said with a grin. "Welcome to Bad Company!"

-----

"Er, where's hotel security?"

* * *

Trixie's Introduction: Complete 


End file.
